interrupt

English

Alternative forms

• interrumpt (archaic), interroupt (rare), interrout (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interruptus, from interrumpere (“to break apart, break to pieces, break off, interrupt”), from inter (“between”) + rumpere (“to break”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/ (verb)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (verb)
• Rhymes: -ʌpt (verb)
• IPA^(key): /ˈɪntəˌɹʌpt/ (noun)
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧rupt

Verb

interrupt (third-person singular simple present interrupts, present participle interrupting, simple past and past participle interrupted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.

   A maverick politician repeatedly interrupted the debate by shouting.

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     Do not interrupt me in my course.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

2. (transitive) To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.

   The evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.

3. (transitive, computing) To assert to (a computer) that an exceptional condition must be handled.

   The packet receiver circuit interrupted the microprocessor.

Antonyms

• continue
• resume

Derived terms

• interruptee
• interrupter
• interruption
• interrupt request
• those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it

 

Related terms

• abrupt
• corrupt
• disrupt

 

Translations

to disturb or halt an ongoing process or action

• Arabic: قَاطَعَ (qāṭaʕa)
• Breton: перапыня́ць impf, перапыні́ць pf
• Bulgarian: прекъсвам (bg) (prekǎsvam), препятствам (bg) (prepjatstvam)
• Catalan: interrompre (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: (chip in) 插口 (caap³ hau²)

  Mandarin: 打斷／打断 (zh) (dǎduàn), (chip in) 插嘴 (zh) (chāzuǐ), 中斷／中断 (zh) (zhōngduàn), 打擾／打扰 (zh) (dǎrǎo)

• Czech: přerušit (cs)
• Danish: afbryde (da)
• Dutch: afbreken (nl), onderbreken (nl)
• Esperanto: interrompi
• Finnish: katkaista (fi), keskeyttää (fi)
• French: interrompre (fr), couper (fr)
• German: unterbrechen (de)
• Greek: διακόπτω (el) (diakópto)
• Hindi: टोकना (hi) (ṭoknā)
• Hungarian: félbeszakít (hu), megszakít (hu), megzavar (hu), megakaszt (hu)
• Interlingua: interrumper
• Italian: interrompere (it), celare (it), ricoprire (it), tagliare (it), interrompersi (it) (reflexive)
• Japanese: 中断する (ja) (ちゅうだんする, chūdan suru), 邪魔する (ja) (じゃまする, jama suru), 遮る (ja) (さえぎる, saegiru)
• Khmer: បង្អាក់ (km) (bɑŋ’ak)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ھەڵدان (helldan)

• Kyrgyz: үзүү (ky) (üzüü)
• Lithuanian: pertraukti, nutraukti
• Maori: whakapōnānā, titere, aruaru, kohiko, kaiwaenga
• Norwegian: avbryte (no)
• Occitan: interrompre (oc), copar (oc)
• Polish: przerywać (pl) impf, przerwać (pl) pf, wtrącać się (pl) impf, wtrącić się (pl) pf
• Portuguese: interromper (pt)
• Punjabi: ٹَوکݨا (ṭaukṇā)
• Quechua: p'itiy
• Romanian: întrerupe (ro)
• Russian: прерыва́ть (ru) impf (preryvátʹ), прерва́ть (ru) pf (prervátʹ), обрыва́ть (ru) impf (obryvátʹ), оборва́ть (ru) pf (oborvátʹ), (conversation) перебива́ть (ru) impf (perebivátʹ), переби́ть (ru) pf (perebítʹ), (chip in) вме́шиваться (ru) impf (vméšivatʹsja), вмеша́ться (ru) pf (vmešátʹsja), меша́ть (ru) impf (mešátʹ), помеша́ть (ru) pf (pomešátʹ)
• Spanish: interrumpir (es)
• Swedish: avbryta (sv), förhindra (sv), stävja (sv)
• Turkish: kesilmek (tr), kesmek (tr) (intransitive), araya girmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: перерива́ти impf (pereryváty), перерва́ти pf (pererváty)
• Volapük: ropön (vo)
• Welsh: torri ar

to assert an exceptional condition

• Finnish: keskeyttää (fi)
• German: Interrupt (de) n
• Japanese: 割り込む (ja) (わりこむ, warikomu)
• Portuguese: interromper (pt)
• Russian: прерыва́ть (ru) impf (preryvátʹ), прерва́ть (ru) pf (prervátʹ)
• Turkish: kesme (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} అడ్డుకొను (te) (aḍḍukonu)

Noun

interrupt (plural interrupts)

1. (computing, electronics) An event that causes a computer or other device to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition.

   The interrupt caused the packet handler routine to run.

Hyponyms

• hardware interrupt
• non-maskable interrupt, NMI
• pattern interrupt
• software interrupt

 

Derived terms

• interrupt handler
• interrupt storm

Translations

An event that causes a computer to temporarily cease

• Czech: přerušení (cs) n
• Finnish: keskeytys (fi)
• German: Interrupt (de) n
• Greek: διακοπή (el) f (diakopí)
• Japanese: 割り込み (ja) (warikomi)
• Polish: przerwanie (pl) n
• Russian: прерывание (ru) n (preryvanije)
• Spanish: interrupción (es) f
• Turkish: kesme (tr)

Further reading

• interrupt on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “interrupt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “interrupt”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “interrupt”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.