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Infotainment, a blend of "information" and "entertainment," first appeared in the early 1980s. Not everyone approves of "infotainment" and similar pieced-together, media-derived words (e.g., "infomercial" and "edutainment"), however. New York Times Magazine writer Joe Morgenstern referred to "infotainment" as "a plastic word, stuck together with show-biz epoxy." An editorialist for a New England newspaper called it "a nauseating word" that "has crept into the language without an invitation." Unfortunately for such detractors, the word continues to be used today. Not only that, but a new, distinct sense of the word is emerging. People in the automotive industry have recently begun using "infotainment" to refer to the state-of-the-art multimedia technologies (such as GPS systems and Internet radio) now available to drivers at the push of a button.

Examples of infotainment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web At the front, there’s a nice, big, 12.3-inch infotainment display, along with the smaller digital instrument cluster. — Maren Estrada, BGR, 14 Apr. 2022 The interior matches with a two-tone black and white upholstery scheme, while the copper color makes an appearance on graphics on the large infotainment display. — Drew Dorian, Car and Driver, 13 Apr. 2022 Thankfully, the Fisker Ocean has a way to banish car-charge boredom, by fitting a 17.1-inch infotainment display in the interior. — Jeremy White, Wired, 1 Jan. 2022 Tech features, many borrowed from Benz, include an 8-inch infotainment display with rotary control dial, Bluetooth connectivity, a Premium sound system, Digital instrument gauges and an in-car Wi-Fi hotspot. — Josh Max, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2021 The dashboard, meanwhile, is equipped with digital gauge cluster in the cockpit and a 14.4-inch infotainment touchscreen powered by the Lexus Interface multimedia system. — Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 21 Apr. 2022 The Polestar 2 was the first car to ship with an infotainment system running Android Automotive. — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 7 Apr. 2022 The infotainment system isn’t built on BMW’s new iDrive 8 interface — instead, the car gets the older iDrive 7. — Maren Estrada, BGR, 2 Mar. 2022 The company’s marketing for the Plaid vehicle also showed The Witcher 3 (above), but in reality, Tesla is still working to offer AAA PC games for the Tesla Arcade platform, which runs on the car’s infotainment system. — Michael Kan, PCMAG, 23 Feb. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'infotainment.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.