The suffix -ment forms nouns, chiefly by attaching to verbs. It can have several meanings, the most common being “an act or an instance of doing something” or “the state of being acted upon.” Thus an entertainment can be “an act of entertaining” and amazement is “the state of being amazed.” Sometimes -ment can mean “result of an action,” as in advancement. The suffix -ment can be traced back to the Latin noun suffix -mentum. Although its use in English dates back to the 1300s, it wasn’t until the 1500s and 1600s that a great number of words were coined with -ment.
