Other forms: interviews, interviewed, interviewing
An interview is a conversation where one side asks the questions and the other answers them. The one everybody pictures is across a desk, deciding whether you get the job: clean shirt, folder of notes, so tell us about yourself.
The other big kind is the recorded one — a player after the match, an author on the radio, a long interview printed in a magazine. Police interview suspects and witnesses; researchers interview participants. The verb belongs to the questioner: a manager interviews you, and you are interviewed by her. That gives the pair of nouns learners mix up — the interviewer asks, the interviewee answers. Watch the small words: you go for an interview, you have an interview with someone, and if things go well you get a second interview.
1nouninterviewA formal meeting where someone is asked questions to decide whether to give them a job or a place.~43%
“She has an interview on Thursday for the teaching post.”
2nounmediaA conversation in which a journalist asks someone questions, to be printed or broadcast.~33%
“He gave one interview after the final and then went quiet.”
3nounsessionA formal session of questioning by police, officials or researchers.~2%
“The interview at the station lasted three hours.”
4verbaskTo ask someone questions in an interview.~22%
“They interviewed eleven people for one job.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 10 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Interview came from Old French entreveue, a form of entrevëoir, built from entre-, between, and vëoir, to see. It named a meeting where two people finally set eyes on each other. English later rebuilt it out of its own pieces, inter- plus view, which is why it looks so tidy.
Old French
entreveue
English, today
interview
Built from
From Old French entreveue, from entreveoir. From Old French entreveue (French entrevue), feminine singular past participle of entrevëoir, from entre- + vëoir (“to see”). Equivalent to inter- + view.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA