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interruption

UK/ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/US/ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,175 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: interruptions

An interruption is a break that stops something in its course. A brief interruption, constant interruptions, without interruption.

Research on office work keeps finding that the cost of one is far more than the time it took, since the return to concentration takes many minutes. Without interruption is what anybody doing difficult work is actually asking for.

Artist not named. · Public domain

Definitions of interruption

  1. 1nouninterruptionA break that stops something in its course.B2

    “She worked on her essay all morning without a single interruption.”

interruption is a break.

Where it comes from

Latin interruptio comes from interrumpere, to break between, from inter plus rumpere, to break.

  1. Latin

    interruptio

  2. Old French

    interrupcion

  3. Middle English

    interrupcioun

  4. English, today

    interruption

From Middle English interrupcioun, from Old French interrupcion, from Latin interruptio.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

interruption in the wild

  • In film and video, a cutaway is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else.

    Cutaway (filmmaking)

  • The interruption is usually quick, and is usually, although not always, ended by a return to the original scene.

    Cutaway (filmmaking)

  • The Southern Television broadcast interruption was a broadcast signal intrusion, or pirate broadcast, that occurred on 26 November 1977 in parts of southern England in the United Kingdom.

    Southern Television broadcast interruption

  • A 3,000-foot interruption occurs again at Galloway Street NE, where the park land of the North Michigan Park Recreation Center exists.

    Eastern Avenue (Washington, D.C.)

  • There is a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) interruption in the avenue along Fort Lincoln Cemetery.

    Eastern Avenue (Washington, D.C.)

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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.