Intergovernmental

How to spell intergovernmental

17 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce intergovernmental

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intergovernmental mean?

1. adjectiveExisting or occurring between two or more governments.

Intergovernmental in a sentence

• The treaty established a new intergovernmental body to oversee trade.

• Climate policy often depends on slow intergovernmental negotiations.

Where does intergovernmental come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This long compound is built from the prefix inter-, a Latin element meaning 'between' or 'among', joined to 'governmental', which traces back through 'government' to the verb 'govern'. 'Govern' came into English in the 1200s from Old French governer, which descended from the Latin gubernare, meaning 'to steer or direct'. The Latin word was itself borrowed from the Greek kybernan, which literally meant 'to steer a ship', so the original image behind all this political vocabulary is a helmsman guiding a vessel. The same Greek root much later gave us 'cybernetics' and, indirectly, the 'cyber-' of modern technology. 'Intergovernmental' is a fairly recent assembly, appearing in the 1800s as bureaucracy and treaties grew, and it simply describes dealings conducted between governments; the spelling trap is keeping every layer intact, the silent 'n' in 'govern' and the full inter-govern-ment-al chain.

How the word is built

• inter- (between, among)
• govern (to rule, from Latin gubernare)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)
• -al (adjective-forming suffix)