intersperse
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin interspergō, interspersus.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]intersperse (third-person singular simple present intersperses, present participle interspersing, simple past and past participle interspersed)
- To mix two things irregularly, placing things of one kind among things of other. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- 1991, Frank Biocca, Television and Political Advertising: Signs, codes, and images, page 76:
- For example, a commercial sequence might intersperse pictures of a senator working in his office with shots of ordinary Americans happily working in various walks of life.
- (transitive) To scatter or insert something into or among other things.
- When writing, I intersperse details.
- 1985, Jane Y. Murdock, Barbara V. Hartmann, Communication and language intervention program (CLIP) for individuals with moderate to severe handicaps, page 46:
- Review tasks are particularly useful to intersperse when students are experiencing considerable failure.
- 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116:
- Goffin is a prose text interspersed with short lists of typical terms exemplifying certain sub-classes of Indian English lexis.
- (transitive) To diversify by placing or inserting other things among something.
- Mother Nature interspersed the petunias with a few dandelions, but it was a pretty garden, anyway.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to mix two things irregularly
|
to insert something into other things
|
to diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
|
References
[edit]- “intersperse”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “intersperse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.