intersect

UK/ɪntəˈsɛkt/US/ɪntɚˈsɛkt/

verbB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,849 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: intersects, intersecting, intersected

To intersect is to cross at a point. The lines intersect, roads that intersect, intersect at right angles.

In geometry two lines intersect at a point and two planes along a line, which is the precise use. The related idea of intersecting identities has given the word a second life in social science.

Definitions of intersect

1verbintersectTo cross at a point.B2+
“The two main roads intersect just outside the village.”

intersect is a crossing.

Where it comes from

Latin intersecare means to cut between, from inter plus secare, to cut.

Proto-Indo-European
*sek-
Latin
intersecare — to cut between, cut off
English, today
intersect

Built from

inter · Latin — between
secare · Latin — to cut

From Latin intersecare (“to cut between, cut off”), from inter (“between”) + secare (“to cut”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

intersect in the wild

A line is said to be perpendicular to another line if the two lines intersect at a right angle.
Perpendicular
A line is said to be perpendicular to a plane if it is perpendicular to every line in the plane that it intersects.
Perpendicular
Instead, as in spherical geometry, there are no parallel lines since any two lines must intersect.
Elliptic geometry
However, unlike in spherical geometry, two lines are usually assumed to intersect at a single point (rather than two).
Elliptic geometry
In geometry, parallel lines are coplanar infinite straight lines that do not intersect at any point.
Parallel (geometry)

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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.

Related words

the secare family

section

intersect — used about once every 10,786 pages · #11,849 · point at the bar for the others

intersection

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