About this article
Entertaiment is a form of audience-centered commercial culture that keeps people amused, engaged, and diverted. It can be an idea, task, or activity that has developed over thousands of years specifically to keep people’s attention and interest. It can also refer to events that are developed and presented in the service of entertainment, such as a live performance, a film, or a video game. The word comes from the Medieval Latin intertenere, which combines the prefix inter meaning “inside” and the suffix ten, the Indo-European root of tener, meaning to hold.
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘entertainment.’ Any opinions in these examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors.