Interchange

How to spell interchange

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce interchange

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interchange mean?

1. nounA road junction where vehicles can move between two or more major roads, typically using ramps.
2. nounThe act of two parties giving and receiving things from each other.
3. verbTo swap two things so each takes the place of the other, or to exchange reciprocally.

Interchange in a sentence

• noun

  The lorry left the motorway at the next interchange.

• noun

  The conference encouraged a free interchange of ideas between researchers.

• verb

  You can interchange these two parts without affecting the engine.

• noun

  Traffic backed up for miles near the busy interchange.

• noun

  A brisk interchange of letters settled the dispute.

• verb

  The two teams agreed to interchange data each week.

Where does interchange come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word combines the Latin prefix inter-, meaning 'between' or 'among', with the verb 'change', which English took from Old French changier and ultimately from the Late Latin cambiare, meaning 'to barter' or 'to exchange'. It entered English in the late 1300s, first as a verb meaning to give and receive reciprocally, the back-and-forth swapping suggested by 'between'. The noun sense of a mutual exchange followed soon after, and by the twentieth century engineers borrowed it for a road junction where traffic moves between two highways without crossing directly. The spelling is straightforward once you see it as the familiar word 'change' with 'inter' fastened to the front, so there is no hidden join to forget.

How the word is built

• inter- (between, among)
• change (to exchange, from Latin cambiare 'to barter')