International

How to spell international

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce international

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does international mean?

1. adjectiveExisting, happening, or agreed between two or more countries.
2. nounA player who has represented their country in a sport, or a match played between national teams.

International in a sentence

• adjective

  The company expanded into international markets across three continents.

• noun

  The former international now coaches a youth academy.

• adjective

  New international trade rules took effect at the start of the year.

• noun

  Tickets for the international at the national stadium sold out within hours.

Where does international come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word was coined in English in the late eighteenth century, and the credit is usually given to the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who needed a term for law operating between nations. He joined the Latin prefix inter-, meaning 'between' or 'among', to nation, which traces back to the Latin natio, literally 'a people' or 'a breed', from nasci 'to be born'. The original idea was therefore a group of people born into the same stock, and from that came the political sense of a nation as a sovereign state. Adding -al turned the noun into an adjective describing anything that exists or moves between such states. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: the -nation- core is clearly heard, but the double pattern of inter- plus nation- catches writers who blur the syllables, and the silent t in the -tion- run is easy to mishandle.

How the word is built

• inter- (between, among)
• nation (from Latin natio: a people, born group)
• -al (adjective suffix)