What Is Entertaiment?
The clown at your kid’s birthday party, Broadway shows, stadium rock concerts, your friends fighting over the last potato chip—entertainment is any amusement or distraction, especially one that involves a performance. The word is related to the Latin entretenir, which means “hold inside.” That’s how it came to be associated with hospitality, and later became a synonym for amusement and distraction.
Click on a collocation to see more examples of entertaiment.
This article was originally published in April, 2019. It has been updated for freshness, clarity and style.
This article has been adapted from a piece that first appeared in the New York Times.