entertainment
English meaning: Entertainment
Definition
An activity designed to give pleasure, enjoyment, diversion, amusement, or relaxation to an audience, no matter whether the audience participates passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games.
Example
“The festival offers music, food and entertainment for all ages.”
Another example: “For pure entertainment, few films beat a good comedy.”
Usage — When, Where & How
Refers to amusement and the industry that produces it (film, music, television, shows). Neutral register, very common in media and casual speech. Note the British/American spelling is identical.
Etymology & Origin
English — Origin & History
From Old French 'entretenir' 'to hold together, maintain', from Latin 'inter' + 'tenere' 'to hold'; the 'amusement' sense from the 17th century.
Synonyms
- amusement
- diversion
- recreation
- enjoyment
- fun
Antonyms / Opposites
Related Words
- weekly
- expo
- tonight
- wwe
- dvd
- sony
- venues
- nintendo
- anime
- interactive
Common Collocations
- live entertainment
- family entertainment
- entertainment industry
- home entertainment
- light entertainment
- entertainment value
Word Forms
entertainment (n); entertainments (pl); entertain (v); entertaining (adj)
Word Tools
Literary Heritage
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
/To thine own self be true/
“Be honest with yourself — and as naturally as night follows day, you will be unable to be false to others.”
“I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?”
/I'm nobody! Who are you?/
“I am nobody — and that quiet anonymity is more honest than the noise of public fame.”
Images
CC-licensed · free to useVideo
Language information
- Language
- English
- English
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Indo-European
- Speakers
- 1.5B