What does entailed mean?
'Entailed' is the past tense and past participle of 'entail', a formal verb meaning that something involves or makes necessary certain conditions, costs, or consequences. When we say a decision 'entailed sacrifices', we mean those sacrifices were unavoidable parts of the decision itself. In its older legal sense, to entail property was to settle it so that inheritance passed only along a fixed line of heirs — a practice central to the plots of nineteenth-century British novels. Today, the word appears most often in careful, slightly formal writing about plans, responsibilities, or trade-offs: what does this project actually entail? Its connotation is one of inevitability and obligation; whatever is entailed cannot simply be avoided. It derives from Old French 'entailier', meaning to cut into, reflecting the idea of carving out fixed limits. For writers seeking precision about necessary consequences, 'entailed' remains a valuable and exact choice.
verbPast tense and past participle of 'entail': to make something necessary as an inevitable consequence, or (in law) to restrict the inheritance of property to a fixed line of heirs.
- To involve, require, or make necessary as an inevitable consequence.
- (Law) To limit the inheritance of an estate to a particular line of heirs.
"The new regulations entailed significant costs for small businesses."
"She hadn't fully understood what the promotion entailed until her first week in the role."
"Under the old settlement, the manor was entailed on the eldest son and could not be sold."
The word 'entail' literally means 'to cut into' — in Jane Austen's England, an estate that was 'entailed' was legally carved so it could only pass down one fixed line of heirs, which is why Mr. Bennet couldn't leave Longbourn to his daughters.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of entailed
Entailed comes from 'entail', from Anglo-Norman and Old French 'entailier', formed from the intensive prefix 'en-' plus 'tailler', meaning to cut. The underlying idea was cutting or carving out a fixed settlement of land. English adopted the word in the late Middle Ages for both the legal sense of settling an estate on a line of heirs and, by extension, the general sense of involving necessary consequences. It shares its root with 'tailor', 'detail', and 'retail', all ultimately from Latin 'taliare', to cut.
Related word forms
How entailed is actually used
In everyday modern usage, 'entailed' is somewhat formal and typically appears in discussions of consequences, obligations, or requirements ('what the change entailed'). The legal sense relating to inheritance is now largely historical, familiar mainly through literature such as Austen and Trollope.
Easily confused with entailed
'Entrained' means carried along or drawn into a stream or flow (as particles into a gas), while 'entailed' means involved or made necessary as a consequence.