interruption

English

Etymology

From Middle English interrupcioun, from Old French interrupcion, from Latin interruptio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌpʃən

Noun

interruption (countable and uncountable, plural interruptions)

1. The act of interrupting, or the state of being interrupted.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing" […] and so on.

2. A time interval during which there is a cessation of something.

Synonyms

• (time interval): hiatus, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause

Translations

the act of interrupting, or the state of being interrupted

• Arabic: مُقَاطَعَة‎ f (muqāṭaʿa)
• Bulgarian: спиране (bg) n (spirane), прекъсване (bg) n (prekǎsvane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 中斷 (zh), 中断 (zh) (zhōngduàn)

• Dutch: onderbreking (nl) f
• Esperanto: interrompo
• Finnish: keskeytys (fi)
• French: interruption (fr) f
• Galician: interrupción (gl) f
• German: Unterbrechung (de) f

• Hungarian: megszakítás (hu), félbeszakítás (hu)
• Italian: interruzione (it) m or f
• Japanese: 中断 (ja) (ちゅうだん, chūdan), 邪魔 (ja) (じゃま, jama)
• Portuguese: interrupção (pt) f
• Romanian: întrerupere (ro) f
• Russian: прерыва́ние (ru) n (preryvánije), поме́ха (ru) f (poméxa)
• Scottish Gaelic: casg m, eadar-chur m
• Spanish: interrupción (es) f
• Telugu: అంతరాయం (te) (antarāyaṃ)
• Volapük: rop (vo)

a time interval during which there is a cessation of something

• Armenian: ընդհատում (hy) (əndhatum)
• Bulgarian: прекъсване (bg) n (prekǎsvane)
• Dutch: onderbreking (nl) f
• French: interruption (fr) f
• German: Unterbrechung (de) f
• Italian: interruzione (it) m or f
• Japanese: 中断 (ja) (ちゅうだん, chūdan)

• Portuguese: interrupção (pt) f
• Romanian: întrerupere (ro) f
• Russian: переры́в (ru) m (pererýv)
• Spanish: paréntesis (es) m, interrupción (es) f
• Swedish: avbrott (sv) n
• Telugu: అంతరాయం (te) (antarāyaṃ)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Volapük: ^{(please verify)} rop (vo)

See also

• dead air

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French

Etymology

From Old French interrupcion, borrowed from Latin interruptio, interruptionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛ.ʁyp.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

interruption f (plural interruptions)

1. interruption

Related terms

• interrompre

Further reading

• “interruption” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).