Standard Lemma guide

amusement

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /əˈmjuzmənt/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AH0 M Y UW1 Z M AH0 N T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Entertainment.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • To my great amusement, the dog kept on chasing its tail and yelped when it bit it.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

An activity that is entertaining or amusing, such as dancing, gunning, or fishing.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: amusement, avocation, diversion, divertisement, fancy, hobby, kill-time, pastime, pursuit, sport

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

an activity that is diverting and that holds the attention

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: entertainment

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: diversion, recreation

Narrower terms: beguilement, distraction, edutainment, extravaganza, militainment, nightlife, night life, show

4

noun

Meaning 4

a feeling of delight at being entertained

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: delight, delectation

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h2éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Old French a- Medieval Latin musumder.? Old French muser Old French amuser Middle French amuser Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Old French -ment Middle French -ment Middle French amusementbor. English amusement Borrowed from Middle French amusement, from amuser + -ment. Morphologically amuse + -ment.

Across languages

Translations

134 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تَسْلِيَة (tasliya) — entertainment
  • Armenian: զվարճություն (zvarčutʻyun) — entertainment
  • Azerbaijani: əyləncə — entertainment
  • Belarusian: заба́ва (zabáva) — entertainment
  • Bengali: আমোদ (amōd) — entertainment
  • Breton: diduamant — entertainment
  • Bulgarian: забавле́ние (zabavlénie) — entertainment
  • Bulgarian: развлече́ние (razvlečénie) — entertainment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 娛樂 /娱乐 (yúlè) — entertainment
  • Czech: zábava — entertainment
  • Danish: underholdning — entertainment
  • Danish: tidsfordriv — entertainment
  • Danish: adspredelse — entertainment
  • Danish: beskæftigelse — entertainment
  • Dutch: amusement — entertainment
  • Dutch: vertier — entertainment
  • Dutch: vermaak — entertainment
  • Esperanto: amuzado — entertainment
  • Esperanto: amuzo — entertainment
  • Esperanto: amuziĝo — entertainment
  • Faroese: stuttleiki — entertainment
  • Faroese: ítriv — entertainment
  • Faroese: dagdvølja — entertainment
  • Finnish: huvi — entertainment
  • Finnish: huvitus — entertainment
  • Finnish: huvittuneisuus — entertainment
  • Finnish: hilpeys — entertainment
  • French: amusement — entertainment
  • Georgian: გასართობი (gasartobi) — entertainment
  • German: Erheiterung — entertainment
  • German: Vergnügung — entertainment
  • German: Vergnügen — entertainment
  • German: Unterhaltung — entertainment
  • German: Belustigung — entertainment
  • German: Amüsement — entertainment
  • German: Entertainment — entertainment
  • Greek: διασκέδαση (diaskédasi) — entertainment
  • Greek: ψυχαγωγία (psychagogía) — entertainment
  • Greek: αναψυχή (anapsychí) — entertainment
  • Hebrew: בִּדּוּר (bidúr) — entertainment
  • Hindi: मनोरंजन (manorañjan) — entertainment
  • Hungarian: szórakozás — entertainment
  • Icelandic: afþreying — entertainment
  • Indonesian: hiburan — entertainment
  • Irish: áibhéar — entertainment
  • Italian: divertimento — entertainment
  • Japanese: 娯楽 (goraku) — entertainment
  • Japanese: アミューズメント (amyūzumento) — entertainment
  • Japanese: 遊び (asobi) — entertainment
  • Kazakh: ойын-сауық (oiyn-sauyq) — entertainment
  • Kazakh: ермек (ermek) — entertainment
  • Korean: 오락 (orak) — entertainment
  • Korean: 놀이 (nori) — entertainment
  • Kyrgyz: эрмек (ermek) — entertainment
  • Kyrgyz: оюн-зоок (oyun-zook) — entertainment
  • Latin: oblectāmen — entertainment
  • Latin: oblectāmentum — entertainment
  • Latvian: izprieca — entertainment
  • Macedonian: забава (zabava) — entertainment
  • Macedonian: разонода (razonoda) — entertainment
  • Malay: hiburan — entertainment
  • Malayalam: വിനോദം (vinōdaṁ) — entertainment
  • Malayalam: രസം (rasaṁ) — entertainment
  • Māori: harakoa — entertainment
  • Mirandese: adbertimiento — entertainment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: underholdning — entertainment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: tidsfordriv — entertainment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: tidtrøyte — entertainment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: fritidsbeskjeftigelse — entertainment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: atspredelse — entertainment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: underhaldning — entertainment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: tidsfordriv — entertainment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: tidtrøyte — entertainment
  • Polish: zabawa — entertainment
  • Portuguese: divertimento — entertainment
  • Romanian: divertisment — entertainment
  • Romanian: distracție — entertainment
  • Romanian: amuzament — entertainment
  • Russian: развлече́ние (razvlečénije) — entertainment
  • Russian: заба́ва (zabáva) — entertainment
  • Serbo-Croatian: за̑бава — entertainment
  • Serbo-Croatian: zȃbava — entertainment
  • Slovak: zábava — entertainment
  • Slovene: zabȃva — entertainment
  • Slovene: razvedrilo — entertainment
  • Spanish: divertimiento — entertainment
  • Spanish: esparcimiento — entertainment
  • Spanish: divertimento — entertainment
  • Spanish: embebecimiento — entertainment
  • Swedish: underhållning — entertainment
  • Swedish: förströelse — entertainment
  • Swedish: avkoppling — entertainment
  • Tamil: கேளிக்கை (kēḷikkai) — entertainment
  • Telugu: వినోదం (vinōdaṁ) — entertainment
  • Thai: มหรสพ (má-hɔ̌ɔ-rá-sòp) — entertainment
  • Turkish: eğlence — entertainment
  • Ottoman Turkish: جنبش (cümbüş) — entertainment
  • Ottoman Turkish: كیف (keyf) — entertainment
  • Ottoman Turkish: رامش (râmiş) — entertainment
  • Ukrainian: розва́га (rozváha) — entertainment
  • Ukrainian: заба́ва (zabáva) — entertainment
  • Vietnamese: sự hài hước — entertainment
  • Volapük: muad — entertainment
  • Bulgarian: развлече́ние (razvlečénie) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Esperanto: amuzo — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Esperanto: amuzaĵo — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Finnish: hupi — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Finnish: hupailu — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Finnish: huvittelu — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Ancient Greek: διατριβή (diatribḗ) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Hebrew: שַׁעֲשׁוּעַ (sha'ashúa) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Hebrew: כיוף — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Italian: intrattenimento — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Italian: festeggiamento — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Kyrgyz: көңүл ачуу (köŋül acuu) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Kyrgyz: эриккенди жазуу (erikkendi jazuu) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Latin: oblectāmen — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Latin: oblectāmentum — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Macedonian: забава (zabava) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Macedonian: разонода (razonoda) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Malayalam: വിനോദം (vinōdaṁ) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Māori: harakoa — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Navajo: zhǫʼ — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Persian: سرگرمی (sargarmi) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Portuguese: diversão — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Russian: развлече́ние (razvlečénije) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Russian: заба́ва (zabáva) — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Spanish: diversión — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Spanish: divertimiento — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Spanish: divertimento — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Spanish: embebecimiento — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Turkish: etkinlik — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Turkish: uğraşı — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
  • Turkish: eğlenti — an activity that is entertaining or amusing
Real reading context

amusement in complete knowledge articles