About

Entertaiment can mean anything from a small act of amusement for an individual to a large-scale spectacle that involves music, dance, drama, and art. It may be a ceremony, celebration, or religious festival; it can also be a sporting event, game, or satire. It has evolved to be highly individualized and can adapt to different mediums—and the use of these media themselves can provide entertainment for people all over the world.

Entertaiment is a suffix that has been added to many verb stems to form nouns indicating the result, effect, or consequence of the action, as in amazement, betterment, merriment. It is derived from the Latin -mentum, which was used to form nouns from verbal roots (as in emerg-i-ment from emerge, enlighten-i-ment from enlighten, and merriment from merri). See related entries in A to Z and M to Z.