amusement

Borrowed from Middle French amusement, from amuser +‎ -ment. Morphologically amuse +‎ -ment.

• IPA^(key): /əˈmjuzmənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: a‧muse‧ment

amusement (countable and uncountable, plural amusements)

1. (uncountable) Entertainment.

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

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 234a:

     This is some form of amusement you're talking about.

2. (countable) An activity that is entertaining or amusing, such as dancing, gunning, or fishing.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hobby

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice:

     "What a charming amusement for young people this is, Mr. Darcy! There is nothing like dancing after all. I consider it as one of the first refinements of polished society."

   • 1843, Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold-Bug:

     His chief amusements were gunning and fishing, or sauntering along the beach and through the myrtles, in quest of shells or entomological specimens--his collection of the latter might have been envied by a Swammerdamm.

   • 1919, L. Frank Baum, The Magic of Oz:

     The Cat was sour-tempered and grumpy, at first, but before they had journeyed far, the crystal creature had discovered a fine amusement. The long tails of the monkeys were constantly sticking through the bars of their cage, and when they did, the Glass Cat would slyly seize the tails in her paws and pull them.

Borrowed from French amusement.

• IPA^(key): /ˌaː.my.zəˈmɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: amu‧se‧ment
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

amusement n (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. entertainment, amusement

• amusant
• amuseren

From amuser (“to amuse”) +‎ -ment.

• IPA^(key): /a.myz.mɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

amusement m (plural amusements)

1. amusement

• → English: amusement
• → German: Amüsement

• “amusement”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012