interjection

views updated May 21 2018

in·ter·jec·tion / ˌintərˈjekshən/ • n. an abrupt remark, made esp. as an aside or interruption. ∎  an exclamation, esp. as a part of speech, e.g., ah! or dear me!DERIVATIVES: in·ter·jec·tion·al / -shənl/ adj.

INTERJECTION

views updated May 14 2018

INTERJECTION. A PART OF SPEECH and a term often used in dictionaries for marginal items functioning alone and not as conventional elements of sentence structure. They are sometimes emotive and situational: oops, expressing surprise, often at something mildly embarrassing, yuk/yuck, usually with a grimace and expressing disgust, ow, ouch, expressing pain, wow, expressing admiration and wonder, sometimes mixed with surprise. They sometimes use sounds outside the normal range of a language: for example, the sounds represented as ugh, whew, tut-tut/tsk-tsk. The spelling of ugh has produced a variant of the original, pronounced ‘ugg’. Such greetings as Hello, Hi, Goodbye and such exclamations as Cheers, Hurray, Well are also interjections.

interjection

views updated Jun 11 2018

interjection ejaculation XV; (gram.) XVI. — (O)F. — L. interjectiō, -ōn-, f. interject-, pp. stem of intericere interpose, f. INTER- + jacere throw.
So interject XVI.