Meanings
present singular third person intersperses · participle present interspersing · participle past interspersed · past interspersed
- To mix two things irregularly, placing things of one kind among things of other.
For example, a commercial sequence might intersperse pictures of a senator working in his office with shots of ordinary Americans happily working in various walks of life.
1991, Frank Biocca, Television and Political Advertising: Signs, codes, and images, page 76 - transitiveTo scatter or insert something into or among other things.
When writing, I intersperse details.
3 more examples
Kjelsås (six miles) marks the end of the suburbs, and the line immediately plunges into Nordmarka. This vast untamed area of forest and mountain (much of it over 2,000 ft. above sea level), interspersed with innumerable lakes, large and small, is known as Oslo's playground.
1955 July, M. D. Greville, “To the Valdres by Rail”, in Railway Magazine, pages 457-458Review tasks are particularly useful to intersperse when students are experiencing considerable failure.
1985, Jane Y. Murdock, Barbara V. Hartmann, Communication and language intervention program (CLIP) for individuals with moderate to severe handicaps, page 46Goffin is a prose text interspersed with short lists of typical terms exemplifying certain sub-classes of Indian English lexis.
2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116Synonyms: thread
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo scatter or insert something into or among other things.
More synonyms by meaning
verbintroduce one's writing or speech with certain expressions
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latininterspergō, interspersus
- Englishintersperse
From Latin interspergō, interspersus.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian разпръсвам, разнообразявам
- разпръсвам (razprăsvam)to insert something into other things
- разнообразявам (raznoobrazjavam)to diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
Czech promíchat
- promíchatto mix two things irregularly
Finnish sirotella, sirotella
- sirotellato mix two things irregularly
- sirotellato insert something into other things
- lomittaato insert something into other things
- elävöittääto diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
French entremêler, intercaler
- entremêlerto mix two things irregularly
- intercalerto insert something into other things
German abwechseln, mischen
- abwechselnto mix two things irregularly
- mischento mix two things irregularly
- vermischento mix two things irregularly
- einstreuento insert something into other things
- daruntermischento insert something into other things
- auflockernto diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
- durchmischento diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
- durchsetzento diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
Greek διανθίζω με
- διανθίζω με (dianthízo me)to insert something into other things
Portuguese intercalar, intercalar
- intercalarto mix two things irregularly
- intercalarto diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
Russian сме́шивать, вкрапля́ть
- сме́шивать (sméšivatʹ)to mix two things irregularly
- вкрапля́ть (vkrapljátʹ)to insert something into other things
- перемежать (peremežatʹ)to insert something into other things
- помещать (pomeščatʹ)to insert something into other things
- разбавля́ть (razbavljátʹ)to diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
Scottish Gaelic eadar-sgaoil, eadar-sgap
- eadar-sgaoilto mix two things irregularly
- eadar-sgapto mix two things irregularly
Spanish entreverar, entremeter
- entreverarto mix two things irregularly
- entremeterto insert something into other things
- interserirto insert something into other things
- entregerirto insert something into other things
Swedish spränga in, blanda in
- spränga into mix two things irregularly
- blanda into diversify by placing or inserting other things among something
Cite this entry
intersperse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/intersperse
“intersperse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/intersperse. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “intersperse,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/intersperse.
Source: intersperse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.