Entangled

How to spell entangled

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce entangled

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does entangled mean?

1. adjectiveCaught, twisted, or knotted together so as to be hard to separate.
2. adjectiveDrawn into a complicated, awkward, or troublesome situation that is hard to escape.

Entangled in a sentence

• The fishing line was hopelessly entangled in the reeds.

• The company became entangled in a lengthy legal dispute.

• The kitten got entangled in a loose ball of wool.

• He was deeply entangled in his neighbour's financial troubles.

Where does entangled come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word builds on 'tangle', which English took from a Scandinavian source in the Middle Ages; it is related to a Swedish dialect word 'taggla', meaning to disorder or to muss up, and originally described things knotted or matted together. The prefix 'en-', meaning roughly 'to put into' or 'to cause to be in', came from Old French and ultimately from Latin 'in'. Joined together from around the late 1500s, 'entangle' meant literally to catch or twist something in a knotted mass. From there it quickly took on the figurative sense of getting caught up in a complicated or troublesome situation, such as a dispute or relationship. The spelling trap is the opening 'en-', since many writers reach for 'in-' by mistake, and the soft '-gle' ending hides the hard 'g' you can hear when you say it slowly.

How the word is built

• en- (to put into)
• tangle (twisted mass)
• -ed (past participle suffix)