interchange
Americanverb (used with object)
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to put each in the place of the other.
to interchange pieces of modular furniture.
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to cause (one thing) to change places with another; transpose.
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to give and receive (things) reciprocally; exchange.
The twins interchanged clothes frequently.
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to cause to follow one another alternately; alternate.
to interchange business cares with pleasures.
verb (used without object)
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to occur by turns or in succession; alternate.
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to change places, as two persons or things, or as one with another.
noun
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an act or instance of interchanging; reciprocal exchange.
the interchange of commodities.
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a changing of places, as between two persons or things, or of one with another.
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alternation; alternate succession.
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a highway intersection consisting of a system of several different road levels arranged so that vehicles may move from one road to another without crossing the streams of traffic.
verb
noun
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the act of interchanging; exchange or alternation
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a motorway junction of interconnecting roads and bridges designed to prevent streams of traffic crossing one another
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of interchange
1325–75; inter- + change; replacing Middle English entrechaungen < Middle French entrechangier
Explanation
To interchange two things is to trade or switch them. If the painting hanging on your wall just doesn't fit the room, you can interchange it with the photograph on the opposite wall. When you're baking a pie, you can usually interchange one kind of fruit for another, or interchange tapioca for cornstarch to thicken the filling. When interchange is a noun, it has various meanings including "highway intersection," or the place where these busy roads meet each other. This road meaning dates only from the 1940s, while the "change places" meaning is at least 400 years old.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her land lies close to the A421 at Marston Moretaine Interchange that remains under water.
From BBC • Sep. 29, 2024
Highway 395 remained closed early Monday afternoon from East Lake Boulevard to Bowers Mansion Interchange, officials said.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2024
The event is referred to as the Great American Biotic Interchange, and it helped shape the present-day distributions of innumerable plants and animals on the American continents.
From Science Daily • Feb. 20, 2024
The section is one of the busiest stretches of the interstate, just west of the East Los Angeles Interchange, where several freeways come together.
From New York Times • Nov. 12, 2023
Interchange of thought among the nations,—communication of the products of art and literature, and of the discoveries of science;—this is requisite for the welfare of nations.
From National Character A Thanksgiving Discourse Delivered November 15th, 1855, in the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church by Burt, Nathaniel Clark
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
