intersperse

From Latin interspergō, interspersus.

• IPA^(key): /ɪntə(ɹ)ˈspɜː(ɹ)s/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

intersperse (third-person singular simple present intersperses, present participle interspersing, simple past and past participle interspersed)

1. To mix two things irregularly, placing things of one kind among things of other. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   • 1991, Frank Biocca, Television and Political Advertising: Signs, codes, and images, page 76:

     For example, a commercial sequence might intersperse pictures of a senator working in his office with shots of ordinary Americans happily working in various walks of life.

2. (transitive) To scatter or insert something into or among other things.

   When writing, I intersperse details.

   • 1985, Jane Y. Murdock, Barbara V. Hartmann, Communication and language intervention program (CLIP) for individuals with moderate to severe handicaps, page 46:

     Review tasks are particularly useful to intersperse when students are experiencing considerable failure.

   • 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116:

     Goffin is a prose text interspersed with short lists of typical terms exemplifying certain sub-classes of Indian English lexis.

3. (transitive) To diversify by placing or inserting other things among something.

   Mother Nature interspersed the petunias with a few dandelions, but it was a pretty garden, anyway.

• interspersed
• interspersion

• “intersperse”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “intersperse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• enterprises, entreprises, serpentries