engagement
Americannoun
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engagements
plural
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the act of engaging or the state of being engaged; involvement: The website failed because of weak visitor engagement.
Voter engagement and turnout were high.
The website failed because of weak visitor engagement.
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an appointment or arrangement.
a business engagement.
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betrothal.
They announced their engagement.
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a pledge; an obligation or agreement.
All his time seems to be taken up with social engagements.
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employment, or a period or post of employment, especially in the performing arts.
Her engagement at the nightclub will last five weeks.
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an encounter, conflict, or battle.
We have had two very costly engagements with the enemy this week alone.
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Mechanics. the act or state of interlocking.
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Commerce. engagements, financial obligations.
noun
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a pledge of marriage; betrothal
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an appointment or arrangement, esp for business or social purposes
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the act of engaging or condition of being engaged
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a promise, obligation, or other condition that binds
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a period of employment, esp a limited period
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an action; battle
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(plural) financial obligations
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of engagement
Explanation
If you are a musician or performer and you arrange for a performance, then you have booked an engagement. You might stand in line for tickets when your favorite comedian books an engagement at the local theater. An engagement can also be a general appointment. A previous engagement is the perfect excuse not to go to the opera with your grandmother. An engagement also means an agreement to get married. The news of your engagement might please everyone you know except your fiancé's ex-girlfriend. A military engagement is a hostile meeting of military forces on opposing sides of a conflict.
Vocabulary lists containing engagement
Bud, Not Buddy
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Richard Nixon's "Checkers" Speech (1952)
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In light of slower growth expectations and declining user engagement, Netflix is the latest tech and entertainment company to resort to job cuts amid a challenging economic environment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Hannah Grossman, co-director of High Desert Test Sites, sees Albuquerque’s physical engagement with the landscape as a distinguishing feature of her practice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
At the time, Sweeney attributed job cuts to a "downturn" in Fortnite engagement rather than AI.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
"Everyone was hoping... this would be a game changer. And we continue to believe that it absolutely has the potential," although corporate engagement had been "slower" than anticipated, said Schomaker.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
As she confided in her diary, the breakup of her previous engagement had left her “mangled and torn and castigated and macerated in soul.”
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
The delay had consequences, he warned: major artists book engagements years in advance, limiting what organizers can now arrange.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
"I am seeking engagements around the budget, I want to work with parties to make a better society for everyone."
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
At “Life Burns Faster,” a series of two-night engagements that stretches into March next year, they stayed fleshy and ferocious as a band beneath the digital carnage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
The group will also include other experts from Accenture who will help scale FDE solutions and a small group of Google Cloud FDEs for limited engagements with top-tier customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Automatically, she found herself depending on her father to make the important decisions, and on her mother to advise her on social engagements and the proper clothes to wear.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
