Meanings
nouninterjection (plural interjections)
plural interjections
- grammarA phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to express emotion or as a filled pause; an exclamation.
322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
1844, E. A. Andrews, First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, 6th edition, Boston, page 911 more example
Some evidence confirming our suspicions that topicalised and dislocated constituents occupy different sentence positions comes from Greenberg (1984). He notes that in colloquial speech the interjection man can occur after dislocated constituents, but not after topicalised constituents: cf. / (21) (a) Bill, man, I really hate him (dislocated NP) / (21) (b) ^✽Bill, man, I really hate (topicalised NP)
1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 10, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 533 - Something which is interjected; an interruption.
Mnuchin, asked about climate change in a CNBC interview after his comments about Thunberg, argued there were bigger issues that also needed to be addressed. When a host noted clean air rules as an example of something that might be more urgent, Mnuchin ignored the interjection.
2020 January 23, Philip Bump, “Mnuchin said Thunberg needed to study economics before offering climate proposals. So we talked to an economist.”, in Washington PostSynonyms: insertion, intercalation, interpolation
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to express emotion or as a filled pause; an exclamation.
nounSomething which is interjected; an interruption.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe action of interjecting or interposing an action or remark that interrupts
Broader
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latininteriectiōnem
- Old Frenchinterjection
- Middle Englishinterjeccioun
- Englishinterjection
From Middle English interjeccioun, from Old French interjection (13th century), from Latin interiectiōnem, accusative singular of interiectiō (“throwing or placing between; interjection”), perfect passive participle of intericiō (“throw or place between”), from inter (“between”) + iaciō (“throw”). Displaced Old English betwēoxāworpennes (literally “between-thrown-out-ness”), a calque of the Latin.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ἐπιφώνημα
- ἐπιφώνημα (epiphṓnēma)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Arabic حَرْف نِدَاء
- حَرْف نِدَاء (ḥarf nidāʔ)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Basque interjekzioa
- interjekzioaphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Bengali মধ্যে নিক্ষেপ
- মধ্যে নিক্ষেপ (moddhe nikkhep)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Bulgarian междуме́тие
- междуме́тие (meždumétie)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Catalan interjecció
- interjeccióphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Chinese Cantonese 感嘆詞 /感叹词, 嘆詞 /叹词
- 感嘆詞 /感叹词 (gam² taan³ ci⁴)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- 嘆詞 /叹词 (taan³ ci⁴)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Chinese Mandarin 感嘆詞 /感叹词, 嘆詞 /叹词
- 感嘆詞 /感叹词 (gǎntàncí)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- 嘆詞 /叹词 (tàncí)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- 中斷 /中断 (zhōngduàn)something interjected — see also interruption
- 干擾 (gānrǎo)something interjected — see also interruption
- 打斷 /打断 (dǎduàn)something interjected — see also interruption
Czech citoslovce
- citoslovcephrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Danish udråbsord
- udråbsordphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Dutch tussenwerpsel
- tussenwerpselphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Esperanto interjekcio
- interjekciophrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Estonian hüüdsõna
- hüüdsõnaphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Finnish huudahdussana, interjektio
- huudahdussanaphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- interjektiophrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- kiihtosanaphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- keskeytyssomething interjected — see also interruption
French interjection
- interjectionphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
German Interjektion, Ausrufewort
- Interjektionphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- Ausrufewortphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- Empfindungswortphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Greek επιφώνημα, παρεμβολή
- επιφώνημα (epifónima)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- παρεμβολή (paremvolí)something interjected — see also interruption
Hebrew מִלַּת קְרִיאָה
- מִלַּת קְרִיאָה (milát kriá)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Hindi विस्मयादिबोधक
- विस्मयादिबोधक (vismayādibodhak)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Hungarian indulatszó, mondatszó
- indulatszóphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- mondatszóphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- közbevetéssomething interjected — see also interruption
- közbeszólássomething interjected — see also interruption
- beszúrássomething interjected — see also interruption
Icelandic upphrópun
- upphrópunphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Indonesian interjeksi, kata seru
- interjeksiphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- kata seruphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Irish intriacht
- intriachtphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Italian interiezione, intervento
- interiezionephrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- interventosomething interjected — see also interruption
Japanese 感嘆詞, 間投詞
- 感嘆詞 (kantanshi)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- 間投詞 (kantōshi)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- 感動詞 (kandōshi)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Korean 감탄사
- 감탄사 (gamtansa)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Latin interiectiō
- interiectiōphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Latvian izsauksmes vārds, interjekcija
- izsauksmes vārdsphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- interjekcijaphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Lithuanian jaustukas
- jaustukasphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Malay kata seru
- kata seruphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Norwegian Bokmål interjeksjon
- interjeksjonphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Polish wykrzyknik
- wykrzyknikphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Portuguese interjeição, interjeição
- interjeiçãophrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- interjeiçãosomething interjected — see also interruption
Romanian interjecție
- interjecțiephrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Russian междоме́тие, восклица́ние
- междоме́тие (meždométije)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- восклица́ние (vosklicánije)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- перебива́ние (perebivánije)something interjected — see also interruption
- вмеша́тельство (vmešátelʹstvo)something interjected — see also interruption
Scottish Gaelic clisgear, eadar-chur
- clisgearphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- eadar-chursomething interjected — see also interruption
Slovak citoslovce
- citoslovcephrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Spanish interjección
- interjecciónphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Swahili kihisishi, kiingizi
- kihisishiphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- kiingiziphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Swedish interjektion
- interjektionphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Tagalog pandamdam, abala
- pandamdamphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- abalasomething interjected — see also interruption
- paghintosomething interjected — see also interruption
Thai อุทาน, คำอุทาน
- อุทาน (ù-taan)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- คำอุทาน (ù-taan)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Turkish ünlem, nida
- ünlemphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- nidaphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Ukrainian ви́гук
- ви́гук (výhuk)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Urdu فُجائِیَّہ, حَرْفِ نِدا
- فُجائِیَّہ (fujāiyya)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- حَرْفِ نِدا (harf-i nidā)phrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Vietnamese thán từ, từ cảm thán
- thán từphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- từ cảm thánphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
Welsh ebychiad, ebychair
- ebychiadphrase or word with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence but which serves to expressing emotion or as a filled pause
- ebychairsomething interjected — see also interruption
- ebychiadsomething interjected — see also interruption
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with interjection
sectioncollectionprotectionselectionconnectionelectiondirectioninspectiondetectioninfectioncorrectionprojectioninjectionreflectionrejectionperfectionobjectionresurrectionerectionaffectionconvectiondissectionrecollectioncomplexion
All rhymes →Cite this entry
APA
interjection. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/interjection
MLA
“interjection.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/interjection. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “interjection,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/interjection.
Source: interjection on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.