About this article
From Old French entretenement, from the Latin inter tenere, “to hold inside.” Originally, the word meant to keep something secret within. Its Indo-European root, however, ten (as in TEN), also means to stretch. In the case of entertainment, it is indeed stretching the boundaries of traditional categories and genres to produce a seemingly infinite potential for creative remix. What might seem like entertaining dreck to one audience may be a source of profound insight and intellectual growth for another.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘Entertaiment.’ Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors.