interjection

English

Etymology

From Middle English interjeccioun, from Old French interjection (13th century), from Latin interiectiōnem, accusative singular of interiectiō (“throwing or placing between; interjection”), perfect passive participle of intericiō (“throw or place between”), from inter (“between”) + iaciō (“throw”). Displaced Old English betwēoxāworpennes (literally “between-thrown-out-ness”), a calque of the Latin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪn.təˈdʒɛk.ʃən/
• (US) enPR: ĭn'tər.jĕkʹshən, IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.tɚˈd͡ʒɛk.ʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

Noun

interjection (plural interjections)

2. (grammar) An exclamation or filled pause; a word or phrase with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence, often an expression of emotion.
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 10, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 533:

     Some evidence confirming our suspicions that topicalised and dislocated constituents occupy different sentence positions comes from Greenberg (1984). He notes that in colloquial speech the interjection man can occur after dislocated constituents, but not after topicalised constituents: cf.
     (21) (a)      Bill, man, I really hate him (dislocated NP)
     (21) (b)    ^✽Bill, man, I really hate (topicalised NP)

3. An interruption; something interjected
   • 2020 January 23, Philip Bump, “Mnuchin said Thunberg needed to study economics before offering climate proposals. So we talked to an economist.”, in Washington Post:

     Mnuchin, asked about climate change in a CNBC interview after his comments about Thunberg, argued there were bigger issues that also needed to be addressed. When a host noted clean air rules as an example of something that might be more urgent, Mnuchin ignored the interjection.

Synonyms

• (grammar): exclamation; interj or interj. (abbreviations used in dictionaries)
• (interruption): insertion, interpolation, intercalation

Derived terms

• interjection point
• note of interjection

 

Related terms

• interject
• interjectional

Translations

exclamation or filled pause in grammar

• Albanian: pasthirrmë (sq) f
• Arabic: حَرْف نِدَاء m (ḥarf nidāʔ)
• Armenian: ձայնարկություն (hy) (jaynarkutʻyun)
• Asturian: interxeición f
• Azerbaijani: nida (az)
• Bashkir: ымлыҡ (ımlıq)
• Belarusian: выклі́чнік (be) m (vyklíčnik), вы́гук m (výhuk)
• Bengali: মধ্যে নিক্ষেপ (moddhe nikkhep)
• Bulgarian: междуме́тие n (meždumétie)
• Burmese: အာမေဍိတ် (my) (amedit)
• Catalan: interjecció (ca) f
• Chechen: айдардош (ajdardoš)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感嘆詞／感叹词 (zh) (gǎntàncí), 嘆詞／叹词 (zh) (tàncí), 欹 (zh) (yī)

• Czech: citoslovce (cs) n
• Danish: udråbsord (da) n
• Dutch: tussenwerpsel (nl) n
• Esperanto: interjekcio (eo)
• Estonian: hüüdsõna
• Faroese: miðalvarping f
• Finnish: huudahdussana (fi), interjektio (fi), (obsolete) kiihtosana
• French: interjection (fr) f
• Galician: interxección (gl) f
• Georgian: შორისდებული (šorisdebuli)
• German: Interjektion (de) f, Ausrufewort (de) n, Empfindungswort (de) n
• Greek: επιφώνημα (el) n (epifónima)

  Ancient: ἐπιφώνημα n (epiphṓnēma)

• Hindi: विस्मयादिबोधक (vismayādibodhak), हरफ (hi) m (haraph)
• Hungarian: indulatszó (hu), mondatszó (hu)
• Icelandic: upphrópun (is) f
• Indonesian: interjeksi (id), kata seru (id)
• Ingrian: interjektsia, kiljahussana
• Irish: intriacht (ga) f
• Italian: interiezione (it) f
• Japanese: 感嘆詞 (ja) (kantanshi), 間投詞 (ja) (kantōshi), 感動詞 (ja) (kandōshi)
• Kazakh: одағай (odağai)
• Khmer: ឧទានសព្ទ (kaa bɑñjool), ឧទាន (km) (kaa sɔɔk)
• Korean: 감탄사(感歎詞) (ko) (gamtansa)
• Kyrgyz: сырдык сөз (sırdık söz)
• Lao: ຄຳອຸທານ (kham ʼu thān), ອຸທານ (ʼu thān)
• Latin: interiectiō (la) f
• Latvian: izsauksmes vārds m, interjekcija f
• Lithuanian: jaustukas m
• Malay: kata seru (ms)
• Malayalam: വ്യാക്ഷേപകം (ml) (vyākṣēpakaṁ)
• Mongolian: аялга үг (mn) (ajalga üg)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: interjeksjon m

  Nynorsk: interjeksjon (nn) m

• Occitan: interjeccion f
• Old English: betwēoxāworpennes f
• Pashto: ندائيه f (nedāyá)
• Persian: حرف ندا (fa) (harf-e nedâ), ندا (fa) (nedâ)
• Polish: wykrzyknik (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: interjeição (pt) f
• Romanian: interjecție (ro) f
• Russian: междоме́тие (ru) n (meždométije), (exclamation) восклица́ние (ru) n (vosklicánije)
• Scottish Gaelic: clisgear m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: узвик m

  Roman: uzvik (sh) m

• Sindhi: حَرف نِدا
• Slovak: citoslovce (sk) n
• Slovene: medmet (sl) m
• Spanish: interjección (es) f
• Swahili: kihisishi, kiingizi (sw)
• Swedish: interjektion (sv) c
• Tagalog: pandamdam (tl)
• Tajik: нидо (tg) (nido)
• Tatar: ымлык (tt) (ımlıq)
• Thai: อุทาน (th) (ù-taan), คำอุทาน (th)
• Turkish: ünlem (tr), nida (tr)
• Turkmen: nida
• Ukrainian: ви́гук (uk) m (výhuk)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: undov (uz), nido (uz)
• Vietnamese: thán từ (vi) (嘆詞), từ cảm thán
• Welsh: ebychiad (cy) m

interruption

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中斷／中断 (zh) (zhōngduàn), 干擾 (zh) (gānrǎo), 打斷／打断 (zh) (dǎduàn)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: keskeytys (fi)
• Greek: παρεμβολή (el) f (paremvolí)
• Hungarian: közbevetés (hu), közbeszólás (hu), beszúrás (hu)
• Italian: intervento (it) m
• Portuguese: interjeição (pt) f
• Russian: перебива́ние (ru) n (perebivánije), вмеша́тельство (ru) n (vmešátelʹstvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: eadar-chur m
• Welsh: ebychair m, ebychiad (cy) m

See also

• vocative
• interjection on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French interjection, borrowed from Latin interiectiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.ʒɛk.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

interjection f (plural interjections)

1. (grammar) interjection

Further reading

• “interjection”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interiectiō, interiectiōnem.

Noun

interjection oblique singular, f (oblique plural interjections, nominative singular interjection, nominative plural interjections)

1. exclamation

Descendants

• → English: interjection
• French: interjection