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interval

UK/ˈɪntəvəʊ/US/ˈɪntɚvəl/
nounB2+4 meaningsOccasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,791 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: intervals

An interval is the gap of time between two events. Twenty minutes between trains, the quiet between one clap of thunder and the next, the years between two visits home.

In a British theatre or concert hall, the interval is the break in the middle when the lights come up and everyone queues for a drink; Americans say intermission. In music, an interval is the distance in pitch between two notes, which is what an octave or a fifth is. At intervals means with gaps in between, repeated: at regular intervals, at intervals of ten minutes, buses at five-minute intervals. Keep hold of one thing: the interval is the gap itself, never the events on either side of it.

Definitions of interval

  1. 1nounintervalA period of time between two events or two points in time.B2+~23%

    “A long interval passed before anyone answered the door.”

    synonyms: gap, pause

  2. 2nounintermissionA short break in the middle of a play, concert or match.B2~29%

    “We bought ice creams in the interval and got back to our seats late.”

    synonyms: intermission, break

  3. 3noundifferenceThe difference in pitch between two musical notes.C1~46%

    “The two voices are always an interval of a fifth apart.”

  4. 4nounspaceA space between two things.B2~2%

    “The posts are set at an interval of two metres along the fence.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 24 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense (7 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

  • at intervals — Again and again, with gaps of time or space in between.

Also practised as

  • nounThe break in the middle of a performance.
  • nounThe gap between two things.

Where it comes from

Interval comes from Latin intervallum, built from inter, between, and vallum, a wall of stakes. It named the ground between two palisades of a Roman camp, the empty strip inside the defences. From a space you could walk across, the word moved to a space you wait through.

  1. Latin

    intervallum — space between, interval, distance, interval of time, pause, difference; literally, space between two palisades or walls

  2. Old French

    intervalle

  3. Middle English

    interval

  4. English, today

    interval

From Middle English interval, intervalle, from Old French intervalle, entreval, from Latin intervallum (“space between, interval, distance, interval of time, pause, difference; literally, space between two palisades or walls”), from inter + vallum.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Time & Calendar, A Man Called Ove, Music & Instruments

First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

interval in the wild

  • The interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave.

    Octave

  • To emphasize that it is one of the perfect intervals (including unison, perfect fourth, and perfect fifth), the octave is designated P8.

    Octave

  • A specific scale is defined by its characteristic interval pattern and by a special note, known as its first degree (or tonic).

    Scale (music)

  • The tonic of a scale is the note selected as the beginning of the octave, and therefore as the beginning of the adopted interval pattern.

    Scale (music)

  • In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds.

    Interval (music)

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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.