Word
interval
Phoneticsin·ter·val
US/ˈɪntɝvəɫ/
UK/ˈɪntəvəl/
Definitions
01time between events
n. a period of time between two events or activities.
n. a temporal gap or duration separating two distinct events or states.
“There was a short interval of peace before the noisy construction work started again.”
“The study observed the patients at regular intervals over a five-year period to track the long-term effects of the medication.”
02theatre/concert break
n. a short break between the parts of a performance, like a play or a concert.
n. a scheduled intermission between the acts of a theatrical performance or the sections of a concert.
“We went to get some water during the interval of the play.”
“During the fifteen-minute interval, the audience crowded into the foyer while the stagehands quickly rearranged the scenery for the second act.”
British English
Synonyms
03distance in space
n. the physical distance or gap between two objects.
n. the spatial distance or amount of separation between two points or objects.
“The trees were planted at ten-meter intervals along the road.”
“The security lights were placed at precise intervals along the perimeter fence to ensure there were no dark spots.”
04musical pitch
n. the difference in highness or lowness between two musical notes.
n. the difference in frequency or pitch between two musical tones.
“The singer practiced jumping between a wide interval of notes.”
“The composer used dissonant intervals to create a sense of tension and unease throughout the opening movement of the symphony.”
Technical
05mathematical range
n. all the numbers between two specific points.
n. a set of real numbers that includes all numbers between any two numbers in the set.
“The function is only valid for the interval between zero and one.”
“The algorithm calculates the probability of an event occurring within a specific confidence interval based on the provided data set.”
Academic · Technical
06sports break
n. a break in a game, such as half-time in football or lunch in cricket.
n. a scheduled break between periods of play in a sporting match.
“The players headed to the locker room for the half-time interval.”
“Rain stopped play just before the tea interval, leaving the batsmen frustrated as they waited for the clouds to clear.”
British English
Real-World Examples
“That’s almost 23 hours of Wagner, not including intervals, in a single week.” “The lack of context for the fossils—normally provided by the sediments from which they are recovered—means we don't know whether the two individuals lived at the same time or even during a similar interval.” Etymology
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 (“between”) + vallum (“palisade, wall”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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