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intertwine

in·ter·twine/ˌɪntəɹˈtwaɪn/verb

intertwine is a verb meaning “To twine (things) together” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled I-N-T-E-R-T-W-I-N-E and has 3 syllables (in·ter·twine), and it appears about once in every 5 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does intertwine mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To twine (things) together.

  2. 2

    To connect (things) closely.

  3. 3

    To become twined together.

  4. 4

    To become mutually involved.

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

How do you pronounce intertwine?

  • UK /ˌɪntəˈtwaɪn/
  • US /ˌɪntəɹˈtwaɪn/
  • US [-ɾəɹ-]

Intertwine has 3 syllables, split in·ter·twine in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-intertwine.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of intertwine

  • intertwines present, singular, he/she/it
  • intertwining participle, present
  • intertwined participle, past

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

How common is intertwine?

Intertwine appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th 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).

Intertwine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchenchevêtrer, entrelacer (to twine (things) together), s'entrelacer (to become twined together)
Germanverflechten (to twine (things) together), sich verflechten (to become twined together)
Portugueseentrelaçar, trançar (to twine (things) together), entrelaçar-se, trançar-se (to become twined together)
Spanishentretejer, entrelazar (to twine (things) together), entretejerse, entrelazarse (to become twined together)

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 intertwine come from?

From inter- + twine.

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