amuse.
To entertain or occupy (someone or something) in a pleasant manner; to stir (someone) with pleasing emotions.
Meaning & usage
To entertain or occupy (someone or something) in a pleasant manner; to stir (someone) with pleasing emotions.
I watch these movies because they amuse me.
It always amuses me to hear the funny stories why people haven't got a ticket, but I never let them get in without paying.
To cause laughter or amusement; to be funny.
His jokes rarely fail to amuse me.
To keep in expectation; to beguile; to delude.
To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Old French a- Medieval Latin musumder.? Old French muser Old French amuserbor. Middle English *amusen English amuse From Late Middle English *amusen (“to mutter, be astonished, gaze meditatively on”), from Old French amuser (“to stupefy, waste time, be lost in thought”), from a- + muser (“to stare stupidly at, gape, wander, waste time, loiter, think carefully about, attend to”), of uncertain and obscure origin. Cognate with Occitan musa (“idle waiting”), Italian musare (“to gape idly about”). Possibly from Old French *mus (“snout”) from Vulgar Latin *mūsa (“snout”) — compare Medieval Latin mūsum (“muzzle, snout”) –, from Proto-Germanic *mū- (“muzzle, snout”), from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“lips, muzzle”). Compare North Frisian müs, mös (“mouth”), German Maul (“muzzle, snout”). Alternative etymology connects muser and musa with Frankish *muoza (“careful attention, leisure, idleness”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtǭ (“leave, permission”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to acquire, possess, control”). This would make it a cognate of Dutch musen (“to leisure”), Old High German *muoza (“careful attention, leisure, idleness”) and muozōn (“to be idle, have leisure or opportunity”), German Muße (“leisure”). More at empty.
Try it on your idea.
amuse has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.