English Online Dictionary. What means entertainment? What does entertainment mean?
English
Alternative forms
- entretainment (chiefly archaic)
- intertainment (archaic)
Etymology
From Middle English entretenement (“support, maintenance”), from Old French entretenement; see entertain.
Morphologically entertain + -ment
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɛn.təˈteɪn.mənt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌɛn.tɚˈteɪn.mənt/
- Rhymes: -eɪnmənt
- Hyphenation: en‧ter‧tain‧ment
Noun
entertainment (countable and uncountable, plural entertainments)
- 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.
- A show put on for the enjoyment or amusement of others.
- (obsolete) Maintenance or support.
- (obsolete) Admission into service; service.
- (obsolete) Payment of soldiers or servants; wages.
- (obsolete) Reception; (provision of) food to guests or travellers.
Derived terms
Translations
Further reading
- “entertainment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “entertainment”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “entertainment”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
- entretainment