entail

UK/ɛnˈteɪl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/enˈtæɪl/

entail verb: to imply, require, or invoke.

Verb

entail (third-person singular simple present entails, present participle entailing, simple past and past participle entailed)

(transitive) To imply, require, or invoke.
- This activity will entail careful attention to detail.
- What mattered to Hegel, and now Leach, is a presupposedly, historically necessary evolution in the structure of political power, entailing the creation of new classes of powerless victims to be sacrificed on the altar of abstract ideological concepts (i.e., “choice”).1997 April 12, Richard Ring, “Secular, abortion-believers are the bloodiest lot”, in The Daily News, page A11
(transitive) To settle or fix inalienably on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants or a certain line of descendants; -- said especially of an estate; to bestow as a heritage.
- Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 50
- Allowing them to entail their estates.1754-1762, David Hume, The History of England
(obsolete, transitive) To appoint hereditary possessor.
- To entail him and his heirs unto the crown.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Noun

entail (plural entails)

That which is entailed.
- A power of breaking the ancient entails, and of alienating their estates.1754–1762, David Hume, “(please specify the page)”, in [The History of England ], volume (please specify |volume=1 to 6), London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […]
1. An estate in fee entailed, or limited in descent to a particular class of issue.
2. The rule by which the descent is fixed.
  - All land acquired by inheritance must follow the Khasi law of entail, by which property descends from the mother to the youngest daughter, and again from the latter to her youngest daughter.1907, Philip Richard Thornhagh Gurdon, The Khasis, page 88
(obsolete) Delicately carved ornamental work; intaglio.
- A worke of rich entayle.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4

entail meaning in Malayalam, Kannada and Persian

entail in Malayalam

ആവശ്യമായി വരുക, അനിവാര്യമാക്കിത്തീർക്കുക

entail in Kannada

ಅಗತ್ಯವಾಗಿಸು, ಆವಶ್ಯಕಗೊಳಿಸು, ಪರಭಾರೆ ಮಾಡದಂತೆ ನಿಷ್ಕರ್ಷಿಸು, ಪರಭಾರೆ ಮಾಡದಂತೆ ವಿಧಿಸು, ಉಂಟಾಗು, ಒಳಗೊಳ್ಳು

entail in Persian

imply or require: مستلزم بودن mostalzem budan, ایجاب کردن ijâb kardan

Examples of entail in a sentence

God's immateriality entails the divine attribute of incorporeality, that God is neither a body nor embodied.2003, James Porter Moreland, William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, →ISBN, page 507:
It also entailed well-documented disadvantages: a population increase in an unsustaining economy, a battered self-identity, a plague of substance abuse.2009 July 24, Holland Cotter, “Postcards From Canada’s ‘New North’”, in The New York Times:
I here entail The crown to thee and to thine heirs forever.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...
Apparently, Henry VII visited the city [Bristol] in 1487, "taking care to entail a sumptuary fine on the citizens because their wives dressed too gaudily".2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 55:

All 40 example sentences with entail

Forms of entail

Verb
third-person singular present	entails
present participle	entailing
past participle	entailed
past	entailed
alternative form (archaic)	intail
Noun
plural	entails

Past tense of entail: entailed

Plural of entail: entails

Origin of entail

From Middle English entaillen, from Old French entaillier, entailler (“to notch”, literally “to cut in”); from prefix en- + tailler (“to cut”), from Late Latin taliare, from Latin talea. Compare late Latin feudum talliatum (“a fee entailed, i.e., curtailed or limited”).

From Middle English entaille (“carving”), from Old French entaille (“incision”), from the verb entailler. See above.

Words formed from entail

Words that rhyme with entail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about entail

What does entail mean?: Entail means to imply, require, or invoke.
What is entail in Malayalam?: Entail in Malayalam is ആവശ്യമായി വരുക, അനിവാര്യമാക്കിത്തീർക്കുക. See Entail meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use entail in a sentence?: God's immateriality entails the divine attribute of incorporeality, that God is neither a body nor embodied.
What part of speech is entail?: Entail can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce entail?: Entail is pronounced /ɛnˈteɪl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of entail?: The past tense of entail is entailed.

Words near entail in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: entail (page history and authors); entail (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); entail (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-entail.ogg.

Cite this entry: “entail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/entail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.