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PlainSpell

intern

/ɪnˈtɝn/noun, verb

intern is spelled I-N-T-E-R-N: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, intern means “A person who is interned, forcibly or voluntarily” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of intern is interns.

How many letters and syllables are in intern?

Letters6: I-N-T-E-R-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.7 times per million words; the 11,685th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is intern?

Intern appears 4.7 times per million words in written English, the 11,685th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce intern?

  • US /ɪnˈtɝn/
  • UK /ɪnˈtɜːn/

As a noun (“A student or recent graduate who works in order to gain…”): /ˈɪntɝn/, /ˈɪntɜːn/.

Intern has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-intern.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-intern2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with intern?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as intern from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tinner.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of intern

  • interns plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • interne
  • interning participle, present
  • interned participle, past
  • more intern comparative
  • most intern superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does intern mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A person who is interned, forcibly or voluntarily.

  2. 2

    A student or recent graduate who works in order to gain experience in their chosen field.

  3. 3

    A medical student or recent graduate working in a hospital as a final part of medical training.

verb

  1. 1

    To imprison somebody, usually without trial.

    The US government interned thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

  2. 2

    To confine or hold (foreign military personnel who stray into the state's territory) within prescribed limits during wartime.

    The Swiss government interned the Italian soldiers who had strayed onto Swiss territory.

  3. 3

    To internalize.

  4. 4

    To work as an intern, usually with little or no pay or other legal prerogatives of employment, and for the purpose of furthering a program of education.

    I'll be interning at Universal Studios this summer.

adjective

  1. 1

    archaicInternal.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Intern in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchinterner (to imprison (transitive)), stagiaire (student or recent graduate who works in order…), interne (des hôpitaux) (medical trainee working in a hospital)
Germaninternieren (to imprison (transitive)), Praktikant, Praktikantin (student or recent graduate who works in order…)
Portugueseestagiário, estagiária (student or recent graduate who works in order…), interno (medical trainee working in a hospital), estagiar (to work as an intern)
Spanishpasante, practicante, persona en prácticas, interno, becario, practicando (student or recent graduate who works in order…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does intern come from?

From French interner, from interne (“inner, internal”), from Latin internus (“within, internal”), compare Etymology 2.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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