Amuse is a verb meaning to entertain or cause someone to laugh or smile. It is commonly used in phrases like “amuse yourself” or in contexts where something provides mild entertainment. The word emphasizes lighthearted interest rather than deep comedy, and can function transitively (amuse someone) or intransitively in rare constructions.
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"The magician’s tricks never fail to amuse the children."
"A quirky video can amuse viewers for hours."
"She tried to amuse herself by telling silly stories."
"The host attempted to amuse the guests with a playful anecdote."
Amuse comes from the Old French amuser, meaning to cause to think or remember, and to divert. The word itself is a composite of a- (toward) plus muse, originally indicating the act of thinking or taking into one’s mind in a playful, diverting sense. In English, amuser began to appear in the late Middle Ages and gained its modern sense of entertaining or providing amusement in Early Modern English as social interaction and entertainment evolved. The evolution reflects a shift from internal contemplation to outward diversion. The noun form amusement (from Latin muse) ties to ideas of mental stimulation coupled with peripheral delight. Early attestations appear in law and literature as people sought pleasant diversions, and by the 18th–19th centuries, amuse became common in everyday speech to describe engaging or entertaining activity, with the object of amusement often being a person or medium (story, performance, joke). The word’s trajectory mirrors a broader cultural shift toward leisure and light-hearted entertainment in Western Europe and, subsequently, North America.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "amuse" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "amuse"
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Pronounce as a-MUSE with the stress on the second syllable. IPA: US /əˈmjuːz/, UK /əˈmjuːz/, AU /əˈmjuːz/. Start with a weak initial schwa, then glide into a clear /mjuː/ sequence, ending with /z/. You’ll feel the lips rounded for the /m/ and the /juː/ is a yod+long u sound. In careful speech, keep the /j/ sound linked to the /uː/: a-mjuuz. In fast speech, it often reduces to /əˈmyuz/ with a lighter first vowel.
Common errors: (1) Misplacing stress with a-MUSE instead of the second syllable; keep the stress on the second syllable. (2) Rendering /juː/ as a plain /u/ or /ju/ as separate syllables; ensure the /mjuː/ cluster is smooth. (3) Slurring the final /z/ into a voiceless /s/; aim for a voiced /z/ with slight voicing continuation. Correct by exaggerating the second syllable in practice: /əˈmjuːz/ then reduce.
US tends to have /əˈmjuːz/, with a careful /j/ element in the /mjuː/ cluster; UK often has a slightly longer /juː/ and crisper /z/. Australian pronunciation aligns with /əˈmjuːz/ but may show minor vowel shortening in rapid speech. In all, the key differences are vowel length and the quality of the /juː/ glide; non-rhotic accents may reduce post-vocalic r sounds elsewhere, but amuse remains rhotic in most varieties, keeping the /r/ absent in British and Australian forms.
The difficulty centers on the /juː/ sequence after /m/—a consonant cluster with a palatal glide that’s easy to mispronounce as /muːz/ or /mjuːz/ with a clipped /j/. The initial schwa can also be reduced in fast speech, making it sound like /ˈmjuːz/ or /əˈmuhz/. Coordinating the light voicing on the final /z/ with a clean /s/ can be tricky for some speakers, especially when the preceding vowel is unstressed.
Is the initial vowel in ‘amuse’ ever stressed in connected speech? Not typically; in standard English, the stress remains on the second syllable a-MUSE. In careful, emphatic speech you could slightly emphasize the first syllable, but the natural, common form remains with primary stress on the second syllable. IPA reminder: /əˈmjuːz/.
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