interrupt
in·ter·rupt/ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/verb, noun
interrupt is spelled I-N-T-E-R-R-U-P-T, 3 syllables: in·ter·rupt. The wrong spelling people search most is interupt: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Interrupt is a verb meaning “To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly…”.
How many letters and syllables are in interrupt?
| Letters | 9: I-N-T-E-R-R-U-P-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: in·ter·rupt |
| In writing | 4.1 times per million words; the 12,764th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, interupt, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell interrupt?
Interrupt is spelled I-N-T-E-R-R-U-P-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for interrupt in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is interrupt?
Interrupt appears 4.1 times per million words in written English, the 12,764th 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 interrupt?
- /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/
As a noun (“An event that causes a computer or other device to…”): /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/, /ˈɪntəˌɹʌpt/.
Interrupt has 3 syllables, split in·ter·rupt in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-interrupt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of interrupt
- interrupts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- interrupting participle, present
- interrupted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does interrupt mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.
A maverick politician repeatedly interrupted the debate by shouting.
- 2
To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
The evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.
- 3
To assert to (a computer) that an exceptional condition must be handled.
The packet receiver circuit interrupted the microprocessor.
noun
- 1
An event that causes a computer or other device to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition.
The interrupt caused the packet handler routine to run.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate interrupt?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of interrupt: INT.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Interrupt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | interrompre, couper , interruption |
| German | unterbrechen , Interrupt |
| Portuguese | interromper |
| Spanish | interrumpir, interromper , interrupción |
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 interrupt come from?
From Middle English interrupten, derived from Latin interruptus, past participle of interrumpere (“to break apart/off, interrupt”), from inter (“between”) + rumpere (“to break”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).