Entertaiment is a huge category that encompasses all kinds of activities that make for fun or amusement. The definitions and images of this broad and complex area are not simple, and what may be entertainment for one person or group of people can seem like work or even a form of cruelty to another. The familiar forms of entertainment, however, have demonstrated the capacity to cross over different media and to persist in the face of changing tastes and new technologies.

The word “entertainment” is derived from the Medieval Latin intertenere. The prefix inter means inside, and the suffix tenere is from the Indo-European root ten, meaning to stretch or extend.