engagement

Noun

engagement (countable and uncountable, plural engagements)

1. (countable) An appointment, especially to speak or perform.
   • The lecturer has three speaking engagements this week.
   • prior engagement
2. Connection or attachment.
   • Check the gears for full engagement before turning the handle.
3. (broadly, uncountable, about human emotional state) The feeling of being compelled, drawn in, connected to what is happening, interested in what will happen next.
   • In a recent study with a movie recommendation site […], higher message interactivity in the form of footprints of user actions, responsive suggestions in a search box, and live-chatting with an online agent led to greater perceived contingency and engagement with the site, which ultimately created...2012, James Price Dillard, Lijiang Shen, The SAGE Handbook of Persuasion: Developments in Theory and Practice
   • Mr. Yudkowsky said OpenAI might have primed ChatGPT to entertain the delusions of users by optimizing its chatbot for “engagement” — creating conversations that keep a user hooked.2025 June 13, Kashmir Hill, “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
4. The period of time when marriage is planned or promised.
   • We are enjoying a long engagement, but haven't yet set a date.
5. In any situation of conflict, an actual instance of active hostilities.
   • The engagement resulted in many casualties.
6. (countable) The point at which the fencers are close enough to join blades, or to make an effective attack during an encounter.
   • After engagement it quickly became clear which of the fencers was going to prevail.
7. (Internet, countable) A performance metric representing an instance where a user interacts with some content after an impression.
   1. (Internet, uncountable) The quantitative response to a piece of content or a service; attention.
      • A new peer-reviewed study from researchers at New York University and the Université Grenoble Alpes in France will show that misinformation got six times as much engagement on Facebook as real news, The Washington Post reports.2021 September 3, Sean O'Kane, “New study will show misinformation on Facebook gets way more engagement than news”, in The Verge
      • “Healthy engagement” is how the company describes its aim. “We are building ChatGPT to help users thrive and reach their goals,” Hannah Wong, OpenAI’s spokeswoman, said.2025 November 23, Kashmir Hill, Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, quoting Hannah Wong, “What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York...