entrench
verb
Simple meaning
To establish a substantial position in business.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehntrehnchSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛntˈɹɛntʃ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
figuratively
To establish a substantial position in business, politics, etc.
figuratively
To become completely absorbed in and fully accept one's beliefs, even in the face of evidence against it and refusing to be reasoned with.
military
To surround or provide with a trench, especially for defense; to dig in.
figuratively
To invade; to encroach; to infringe or trespass; to enter on, and take possession of, that which belongs to another; usually followed by on or upon.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To establish a substantial position in business, politics, etc.
Used this way, entrench is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional and government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A hand shovel carried by infantrymen for digging trenches.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.