intervene
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "intervene", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "intervene" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "intervene" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
intervene is aEnglishverb. It means: To become involved in a situation, so as to alter or prevent an action. Pronounced /ˌɪntə(ɹ)ˈviːn/. Often confused with interfere and interment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | intervene |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˌɪntə(ɹ)ˈviːn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #12,080 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for intervene is 9 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌɪntə(ɹ)ˈviːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,080 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for intervene, with forms such as "inetrvene", "inntervene", and "interevne". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "interfere", "interment", "intercede", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Back-formation from intervention, and/or from Latin interveniō (“come between”, verb). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is intervene, spelled I-N-T-E-R-V-E-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To become involved in a situation, so as to alter or prevent an action.
- 2To occur, fall, or come between, points of time, or events.
- 3To occur or act as an obstacle or delay.
- 4To say (something) in the middle of a conversation or discussion between other people, or to respond to a situation involving other people.
- 5To come between, or to be between, persons or things.
- 6In a suit to which one has not been made a party, to put forward a defense of one's interest in the subject matter.
Etymology
Back-formation from intervention, and/or from Latin interveniō (“come between”, verb).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: inetrvene,inntervene,interevne,interrvene,interveen,intervenne,intervnee,intervvene,intevrene,intrevene,inttervene,itnervene,nitervene
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for intervene
Misspelling Variants of "intervene"
Frequency rank: #12,080 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter I in our English index: