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internal

UK/ɪnˈtɜː.nəl/US/ɪnˈtɜɹ.nəl/
adjectiveB22 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #2,510 of 15,258leans written

Internal means on or from the inside. Internal walls, internal bleeding, an internal email.

In organisations it means within the company rather than public: an internal appointment, an internal investigation, internal communications. The medical uses are common and serious — internal injuries, internal organs. Note internal combustion engine, which is named for burning fuel inside the cylinder rather than in a separate boiler, and internalise, meaning to take an idea or a feeling inward. The opposite in every sense is external.

Definitions of internal

  1. 1adjectiveinternalOn or from the inside.B2

    “There was internal damage that the survey missed.”

  2. 2adjectivewithinWithin an organisation rather than public.B2

    “It was an internal appointment and the advertisement was a formality.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

internal is a position inside.

Where it comes from

Latin internus means inward, from inter, between or within. Internal, interior and intern are the same root, and an intern is somebody working inside an institution rather than out in the world.

  1. New Latin

    internālis — of or pertaining to the inner part

  2. Middle English

    internall, internalle

  3. English, today

    internal

From Middle English internall, internalle, borrowing from New Latin internālis (“of or pertaining to the inner part”), from internus + -ālis. by surface analysis, en + intern + al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

internal in the wild

  • Internal refers to the "treatment of diseases of the internal organs".

    Internal medicine

  • The dynamics may refer to the structure of connections of the units of a network, to the collective internal state of the network, or both.

    Network dynamics

  • The Flatiron Institute is an American internal research division of the Simons Foundation, launched in 2016.

    Flatiron Institute

  • The Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro included ground forces with internal and border troops, naval forces, air and air defense forces, and civil defense.

    Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro

  • The 287th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division NKVD internal troops also joined the division.

    8th Motor Rifle Division NKVD

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.