A clown at a birthday party, a Broadway show, your friends fighting over the last potato chip—all of these are forms of entertaiment. The word comes from the French verb entretenir, which means “to hold together” or “support.” It’s often used in conjunction with other arts and media: theatrical entertainment is shows, visual entertainment is stuff you like to look at, and audio entertainment is mostly music. Click on a collocation to see more examples of entertaiment in that context.
By Josh Wise, a writer for The Boston Globe. Follow him on Twitter @jwwise. This article originally appeared in the August 8, 2014 issue of The Boston Globe Magazine.