interruption

Etymology

From Middle English interrupcioun, from Old French interrupcion, from Latin interruptio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌpʃən

Noun

interruption (countable and uncountable, plural interruptions)

1. The act of interrupting, or the state of being interrupted.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing" […] and so on.

2. (linguistics) the act of breaking into someone else’s speech.
3. A time interval during which there is a cessation of something.

See also

• dead air

Etymology

Inherited from Old French interrupcion, borrowed from Latin interruptiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛ.ʁyp.sjɔ̃/ ~ /ɛ̃.te.ʁyp.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

interruption f (plural interruptions)

1. interruption

Further reading

• “interruption”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.