entanglement

noun entanglements

1. countable, uncountable The act of entangling. The most notorious of these was his entanglement of the Soviet Union in the Cuban missile crisis, against the advice of the military, who held him responsible for their embarrassing inability to frighten the USA because he had failed[…]
2. countable, uncountable The condition of being deeply involved and intricated (with politics, a group, another person, etc.) The Letters' account of Dolghurucki's hopeless entanglement in the politics of the imperial accession resonated with her readers, and Vigor's story becomes a minor set piece of Russian histories in the eighteenth century.
3. countable, uncountable The condition, or an instance, of being romantically or sexually involved with another person; an affair. For quotations using this term, see Citations:entanglement.
4. countable, uncountable An obstruction placed in front or on the flank of a fortification, to impede an enemy's approach.
5. countable, uncountable An obstruction of cables and spars across a river or harbour entrance.
6. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of quantum entanglement In his article, Bell demonstrated that quantum theory requires entanglement; the strange connectedness is an inescapable feature of the equations.