entangle
Americanverb (used with object)
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entangles,
present (3rd person singular)
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entangled,
past participle, past
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entangling
present participle
verb
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to catch or involve in or as if in a tangle; ensnare or enmesh
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to make tangled or twisted; snarl
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to make complicated; confuse
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to involve in difficulties; entrap
Synonym Usage
See involve.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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entanglednessnoun
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entanglernoun
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interentangleverb (used with object)
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entangleableadjective
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unentangleableadjective
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unentangledadjective
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unentanglingadjective
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entangledlyadverb
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entanglinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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entanglesimple
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entanglessimple
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have entangledperfect
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has entangledperfect
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am entanglingprogressive
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are entanglingprogressive
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is entanglingprogressive
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have been entanglingperfect progressive
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has been entanglingperfect progressive
Past
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entangledsimple
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had entangledperfect
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was entanglingprogressive
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were entanglingprogressive
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had been entanglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entangle
Explanation
To entangle is to snarl, intertwine with, or get caught in. Too often, dolphins entangle themselves in large fishing nets meant to catch tuna or swordfish. If you mean to trip your brother, you can entangle your leg around his, and when long-haired people don't brush it for days, it will snarl and entangle itself. A figurative way to entangle is to get caught up in a complicated situation: "I didn't mean to entangle you in this mess with my roommates!" Entangle's roots are en-, "put in" or "cause to be" and tangle, or "snarl."
Vocabulary lists containing entangle
Messenger
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: en-, em-
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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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:
It’s written in a broad way that could entangle Congress in other aspects of city governance, which probably isn’t a good use of lawmakers’ time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Over an hour into a high-speed chase with the suspect, the sheriff’s department botched the deployment of a “grappler” net system intended to entangle the back wheels of the car to slow it down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026
Mulino has insisted the canal's neutrality is intact and has urged Washington not to entangle Panama in its rivalry with Beijing.
From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 2026
Around fifteen years ago, he and his collaborators were among the first to entangle the spins of extremely cold atoms.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 26, 2026
I disentangle my finger so that I can entangle all the others until our palms are pressed against each other.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
It nestles and entangles itself in for the long haul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
Those numbers, however, don't amount to much in the grand scheme, given the rate at which Louisiana "incarcerates and prosecutes and entangles people in the criminal legal system left and right every day," Romero said.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2024
But the operatic plot is a skein that sometimes entangles its colorful character and other times leaves them panting with exhaustion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2023
A mass of knotted rope entangles like tentacles or whirs when swung by a spinning dancer.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
In general, however, the caterpillar provides a web of silk which it spins against some surface where the chrysalis will be secure and in this web it entangles its hind legs.
From Butterflies Worth Knowing by Clarence M. Weed
No one from the department has reached out to check on him since the scandal broke; he suspects it’s because people are worried about getting entangled in his criminal or civil cases.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
It said there was a need to define the "boundaries of business interactions through institutional measures, cutting off the grey areas where power becomes entangled with social obligations".
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
In this established optical process, a pump beam enters a nonlinear crystal, where individual photons can split into pairs that may become quantum entangled.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
The reality is that crypto is more entangled with the traditional banking system than it cares to admit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Instead of repelling herself to a safe altitude, Holly crumpled onto the troll’s back, becoming instantly entangled in the ropy fur.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Washington's warning about the dangers of entangling alliances was followed for 150 years.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
One term for the scams is pig butchering, because the scammers “fatten up” their targets by entangling them in romantic relationships online and dangling bogus financial schemes, then “butcher” them by disappearing with their money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2025
More consolidation – and more influential corporate giants – risks more deeply entangling the interests of profit-driven companies in America’s food system.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2024
In the new paper, the team reports near-flawless performance of its two-qubit entangling gates with extremely low error rates.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023
In the morning we would rise shivering and rubbing arms, wordlessly repeat our small chores, fill and hoist our packs, and venture into the great entangling forest again.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
