Intercept

How to spell intercept

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce intercept

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intercept mean?

1. verbTo stop, catch, or seize someone or something while it is moving from one place to another.
2. nounThe act or instance of catching or seizing something in motion, or the point where a line crosses an axis in mathematics.

Intercept in a sentence

• verb

  The goalkeeper rushed out to intercept the cross before it reached the striker.

• noun

  The defender's late intercept stopped a certain goal.

• verb

  Airport security can intercept banned items before they reach the aircraft.

• noun

  On the graph, the y intercept marks where the line meets the vertical axis.

Where does intercept come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin intercipere, which meant to seize or catch something while it was on its way from one place to another. It was built from the prefix inter-, meaning 'between' or 'in the midst of', and the verb capere, meaning 'to take' or 'to seize'. English adopted it in the sixteenth century, keeping the literal idea of grabbing something that was passing between two points, whether a letter, a messenger, or a ball. The cept element is the same root that gives us 'capture', 'receive', and 'accept', because capere left its mark all over the English vocabulary of taking and holding. Knowing that cept descends from capere helps explain the spelling, since the trap is the silent shift from a 'take' root into the -cept ending rather than -sept or -cep.

How the word is built

• inter- (between)
• cept (from Latin capere: to take, seize)