Entail

How to spell entail

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce entail

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does entail mean?

1. verbTo have something as a necessary part, condition, or consequence.

Entail in a sentence

• Running a small business can entail long hours and constant paperwork.

• The new role would entail frequent travel between offices.

Where does entail come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French noun taille, meaning a cut, a notch, or by extension a fixed limitation, which itself traces back to the Latin verb taliare, 'to cut'. In medieval English law the term appeared as the prefixed form 'entail', literally 'to put a limitation on', describing the way land could be cut down or restricted so that it passed only to a specified line of heirs and could not be freely sold off. From that strict legal sense the word broadened, by the 1600s, into the everyday meaning we use most today: to have something as a necessary accompaniment or consequence, as if one thing is legally bound to bring another along with it. The same taliare root that gave us the 'tail' here also lies behind 'tailor', a person who cuts cloth, and 'detail', literally something cut off in small pieces. Remembering that the ending is a true 'tail' (the cut), not a vague schwa, helps fix the spelling.

How the word is built

• en- (to put into, to impose)
• tail (from Old French taille: a cut, a limitation)