What does entailment mean?
Entailment is a noun with two principal senses. In law, it refers to the practice of restricting the inheritance of an estate so that it must pass to a designated line of heirs — historically the eldest son — rather than being freely sold or bequeathed. Common in England from the Middle Ages until the early twentieth century, the entail was a device for keeping family land intact across generations, and it figures memorably in literature such as Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'. In logic and linguistics, entailment describes the relationship between statements whereby the truth of one guarantees the truth of another; if all swans are birds, then 'this swan has feathers' follows as an entailment of that premise. The term is formal and technical, appearing mostly in philosophy, semantics, and legal history. Understanding it clarifies both how arguments derive their force and how old systems of inheritance bound families to their land.
The act or fact of entailing; especially, the limitation of inheritance of real property to a specified line of heirs.
"The entailment of the manor prevented any daughter from inheriting it."
In logic, the relationship whereby the truth of one proposition necessarily follows from the truth of another.
"Every valid argument exhibits entailment from premises to conclusion."
Used when referring to multiple instances of logical consequence; less common in the legal-historical sense.
"Semanticists catalogue the entailments of each sentence."
In medieval England, an 'entail' could lock a family estate into a single bloodline for centuries — which is exactly why Jane Austen's 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 entailment
Entailment derives from the verb 'entail', formed in Middle English from Anglo-Norman 'entailler', meaning literally 'to cut into' (from Old French 'tailler', to cut, ultimately from Latin 'talea', a cutting or twig). The original image was of carving out or limiting what could be done with an inheritance. The noun 'entailment' arose by suffixation in the sixteenth century, first in the legal sense of restricted inheritance, and later extended metaphorically into logic to mean necessary consequence. It shares its root with 'tailor', 'detail', and 'retail'.
Related word forms
How entailment is actually used
Formal in register. In everyday modern usage the word is rare outside academic contexts; sense 1 is largely historical (England abolished most forms of entail in 1925), while sense 2 is current chiefly in logic, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. Plural 'entailments' is common in the logical sense.
Easily confused with entailment
'Entailment' refers to necessary consequence or inherited legal restriction; 'retail' is the sale of goods directly to consumers — they merely share a similar ending.