Entertaiment is a broad category of work that stretches across different mediums and disciplines. It also demonstrates the ability of certain themes and images to be remixed in endless variations to create new meanings and experiences for audiences, even as these familiar forms of entertainment remain recognizable to those who see them again and again. In this context, the word entertainment means anything that affords pleasure, diversion, or amusement: the zoo, the ball, the crossword puzzle, the movies. It also refers to hospitable provision for the wants and needs of guests.

The word entertainment is derived from the Latin term entretenement, which meant “to entertain.” For more information on the history of the word, click here.