entry
noun
Entry — the act, or record, of crossing a threshold into something new
Definition
The act of entering; "she made a grand entrance"
In depth
Entry, like entrance and entering, names the act of entering, but the word carries an additional, distinct sense as the record or item logged within a list, ledger, or competition — a diary entry, a contest entry, each one a discrete unit recorded as having entered a larger collection. The two senses share an underlying logic of crossing into something previously separate.
Origin
The word descends from Old French entree, an entering, from entrer, ultimately from Latin intrare. Its extension to mean a recorded item, as in a ledger or diary, developed naturally from the underlying image of something being formally admitted or logged into a larger, ongoing record, much as a person is admitted into a space.
Usage examples
"Her entry into the competition came almost as an afterthought, submitted only hours before the deadline."
"The diary's final entry, dated only weeks before her death, gave no hint of what was to come."
"Entry to the exhibit required a ticket purchased weeks in advance."
How to use it
Entry's dual meaning, the act of entering and a discrete recorded item, requires context to disambiguate, though the two senses rarely cause genuine confusion in practice. It is common across competition, record-keeping, and access-related writing.
Related concepts
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