emotional entanglement

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A complicated emotional bond with someone that is hard to break free from, often romantic and usually unwanted or troubling.

   Grammar: Countable: you can say 'an emotional entanglement' or talk about several 'emotional entanglements'.

   Patterns

   • an emotional entanglement with someone
   • become entangled emotionally with someone
   • get into an emotional entanglement

   She moved abroad to escape an emotional entanglement with a married colleague.

   Therapists often see patients who are stuck in emotional entanglements they cannot end.

   He described the affair as a brief emotional entanglement rather than a serious relationship.

2. 2nouncountable or uncountableformal

   A situation in which feelings and personal relationships become so mixed up with work or money that they are hard to separate.

   Grammar: Often used in business or legal writing about conflicts of interest; both countable and uncountable use are common.

   Patterns

   • avoid emotional entanglement with clients
   • emotional entanglement between colleagues
   • create an emotional entanglement

   The company warns staff against emotional entanglement with clients.

   There was an emotional entanglement between the two departments that made the merger difficult.

   Good managers keep a clear line between support and emotional entanglement.

Word forms

Common combinations

become involved in an emotional entanglement

He became involved in an emotional entanglement that cost him his marriage.

deep emotional entanglement

Their deep emotional entanglement made the separation painful for both of them.

break off an emotional entanglement

It took her months to break off the emotional entanglement.

an emotional entanglement with a colleague

Office rules discourage an emotional entanglement with a colleague.

romantic entanglement

The novel follows a romantic entanglement between two old friends.

Synonyms and how they differ

affair

An affair is usually a secret sexual relationship; an emotional entanglement can be intense and confusing without being sexual at all.

attachment

Attachment is a neutral word for a bond you feel; an emotional entanglement suggests the bond is messy or hard to escape.

involvement

Involvement is broader and more neutral, covering any kind of participation, while emotional entanglement stresses complicated feelings.

Opposites

Word family

entangle verb

to twist or involve someone in something complicated

entangled adjective

caught up in a complicated situation or relationship

entanglement noun

a complicated situation or relationship that is hard to get out of

emotionally adverb

in a way that relates to feelings

Commonly confused: emotional entanglement or emotional attachment?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “emotional entanglement”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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