Interplay

How to spell interplay

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce interplay

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interplay mean?

1. nounThe way two or more things have an effect on each other through mutual action or influence.

Interplay in a sentence

• The report examines the interplay between interest rates and house prices.

• The lighting designer relied on the interplay of shadow and colour to set the mood.

Where does interplay come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a compound formed within English rather than borrowed whole. The first element, inter-, is a Latin prefix meaning 'between' or 'among', the same piece that begins words like interact and intervene. The second element, play, is a native English word descended from Old English 'plega', which carried a broad sense of brisk movement, exercise, or activity long before it narrowed toward games and amusement. Joined together in the nineteenth century, interplay literally describes activity that happens 'between' things, the reciprocal give and take of two or more forces acting on each other. Because the spelling simply welds a familiar prefix onto a familiar word, the only real trap is remembering that it is written as one solid word with no hyphen.

How the word is built

• inter- (between, among)
• play (action, movement, interaction)