entailed

American  

[en-teyld] / ɛnˈteɪld /

adjective

1. involved with or following from something by logical necessity or as a consequence.

   Most of the public complied with the curfew restrictions despite the entailed inconvenience.

   If the entailed proposition turns out to be false, the theory that generated it must also be false.

2. Law. (of real estate) limited to a specified line of heirs, so that it cannot be transferred or bequeathed to anyone else.

   This entailed estate has belonged to the family for a period of 300 years.

3. Law. descending to a fixed series of possessors, as a title, the crown, etc..

   On the death of his uncle Edward, Duke of York, Richard acquired the entailed title of his grandfather Edmund, Duke of York.

---

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of entail.

Other Word Forms

• nonentailed
  adjective
• unentailed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of entailed

First recorded in 1525–35; entail ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; entail ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

Both these jobs entailed prolonged, ego-deflating battles; both ended in professional debacle.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026

"But I would tell them this, they haven't a clue what this investigation has entailed," he told the Tucson Sentinel newspaper this week.

From BBC • Mar. 8, 2026

While it was debatable how much flexibility “around 5%” entailed, most market participants viewed this as within 0.2-0.3 percentage points of 5%.

From Barron's • Mar. 6, 2026

And while we’ve never really had the full gory details and what that’s entailed, it’s obviously been a subject of informed speculation.

From Slate • Feb. 4, 2026

One new legend towered above all the rest Maddy had decided that the brain lesions couldn’t be kept a secret anymore; every ugly had the right to know what the operation really entailed.

From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld