entertaining
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- entertainingly adverb
- nonentertaining adjective
- quasi-entertaining adjective
- self-entertaining adjective
- unentertaining adjective
- unentertainingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of entertaining
Explanation
Things that are entertaining are enjoyable and distracting. Going to the circus is an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. Activities like playing games and watching movies can be entertaining, and you can also describe a friend who's particularly funny or fun to be with as entertaining. The adjective comes from the related verb, entertain, which meant "keep up, maintain, or keep someone in a certain frame of mind" in the fifteenth century. It comes from the Old French entretenir, "hold together."
Vocabulary lists containing entertaining
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.
It was entertaining and it will teach you something and you won’t even realize you’re learning.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
Exhilarating, high octane, entertaining - this was the modern brand of rugby which made the Six Nations so captivating in an 80-minute nutshell.
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026
The other three bedrooms are all located in an additional wing that also houses many of the home’s “generous entertaining ideas.”
From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026
Horrible people acting horribly is always entertaining, to a point—the point being when the viewer recognizes he has become a voyeur.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
I just have to find some way to make it as entertaining as a cello solo, an operatic aria, or a magic trick.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
Definitions 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.
