intermediate definition

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin intermediatus, past participle of intermediare, from inter + Late Latin mediare (“to mediate”); also Latin intermedius.

Pronunciation

• (UK)
  • (adjective, noun): IPA^(key): /ɪntə(ɹ)ˈmidi.ət/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • (verb): IPA^(key): /ɪntə(ɹ)ˈmidˌieɪt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US)
  • (adjective, noun): enPR: ĭn-tər-mē'dē-ət, IPA^(key): /ˌɪntɚˈmidi.ət/
  • (verb): IPA^(key): /ˌɪntɚˈmidieɪt/

Adjective

intermediate (comparative more intermediate, superlative most intermediate)

1. Being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range.
   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], OCLC 731622352:

     which covered his belly to the navel and gave it the air of a flesh brush; and soon I felt it joining close to mine, when he had drove the nail up to the head, and left no partition but the intermediate hair on both sides.

   • 1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 98:

     The outstanding train on the L.M.S. route was the 6.20 p.m. from Birmingham, which reached Euston in two hours after intermediate stops at Coventry, Rugby and Watford Junction, and evoked some sparkling performances from "Patriot" and "Jubilee" 4-6-0s.

   • 2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:intermediate

Translations

Noun

intermediate (plural intermediates)

1. Anything in an intermediate position.
2. An intermediary.
3. (chemistry) Any substance formed as part of a series of chemical reactions that is not the end-product.

Translations

Verb

intermediate (third-person singular simple present intermediates, present participle intermediating, simple past and past participle intermediated)

1. (intransitive) To mediate, to be an intermediate.
2. (transitive) To arrange, in the manner of a broker.

   Central banks need to regulate the entities that intermediate monetary transactions.

Derived terms

• intermediation
• intermediatory

Translations