A clown at a birthday party, a Broadway show, a stadium rock concert, or your friends fighting over the last potato chip—entertaiment is any distraction that takes the edge off boredom. From the Old French entretenement (to hold together), it became associated with hospitality, and then came to mean amusement or enjoyment generally involving some kind of performance. Entertainment encompasses theatrical entertainment as shows, visual entertainment such as art or food, and audio entertainment such as music.