Intervening

How to spell intervening

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce intervening

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intervening mean?

1. adjectiveOccurring or lying in the time or space between two events, dates, or things.
2. verbTaking part in a situation in order to alter or prevent its course.

Intervening in a sentence

• adjective

  The intervening years had changed the town beyond recognition.

• verb

  Intervening in the dispute only made matters worse for everyone involved.

• adjective

  During the intervening period, the contract remained unsigned.

• verb

  The manager believed intervening early would prevent a costly delay.

Where does intervening come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb intervenire, which combined inter, meaning 'between' or 'among', with venire, meaning 'to come'. The literal sense was therefore 'to come between', whether between two people, two events, or two points in time. English adopted intervene in the sixteenth century, and the participle 'intervening' soon followed as a way to describe whatever falls in the gap, such as the years that lie between two dates or a person who steps into a quarrel. The same venire root supplies a large family of familiar words, including 'convene', 'prevent', 'venue', and 'revenue', all of which involve some form of coming. Keeping that 'come' root in mind helps with the spelling, since the middle is built on ven, not 'vin', and the prefix is the everyday inter- found in 'international' and 'internet'.

How the word is built

• inter- (between)
• ven (come, from Latin venire)
• -ing (present participle suffix)