intervention
Americannoun
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the act or fact of coming or occurring between two people, things, or times.
Squabbling siblings generally work things out themselves, but this fight called for parental intervention.
Even the intervention of 20 years hadn’t erased their mutual dislike.
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interposition or interference of one state in the affairs of another.
The UN’s prohibition of armed intervention in the civil war can easily be criticized as antihumanitarian.
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a planned confrontation of someone engaging in self-destructive behavior, such as substance abuse, to convince them to seek treatment.
She thought her drinking was a well-kept secret until she came home to find six of her siblings and friends ready to conduct an intervention.
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Education. a targeted short-term teaching strategy for students with specific needs.
Reading interventions kept several of her students from having to switch to remedial classes.
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Medicine/Medical. a treatment, procedure, or other action taken to prevent or treat disease, or to improve health in other ways.
The patient has responded well to nonpharmacological interventions for high blood pressure.
noun
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the act of intervening
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any interference in the affairs of others, esp by one state in the affairs of another
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economics the action of a central bank in supporting the international value of a currency by buying large quantities of the currency to keep the price up
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commerce the action of the EU in buying up surplus produce when the market price drops to a certain value
Other Word Forms
- interventional adjective
- interventionary adjective
- prointervention adjective
- reintervention noun
Etymology
Origin of intervention
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Late Latin interventiōn-, stem of interventiō “interruption, occurrence”; equivalent to intervene + -tion
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.
De Meo, seeming satisfied, later said it had been a characteristically direct intervention from someone like him, arriving with his proverbial big boots rather than ideals.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
There has been some criticism of the Premier League amid claims it has become dull because of time-wasting tactics, VAR intervention, fatigue of players and an emphasis on systems rather than individuals.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
When you have to deal with the IRS at the next level of intervention, you need the right kind of expert help.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 6, 2026
"Beijing's intention, in short, is to internalise the cross-strait issue, treating it as a domestic matter for China, with foreign intervention prohibited," Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Liang Wen-chieh said Thursday.
From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026
“Well,” Kennedy began, “first I want to say that there will not, under any conditions, be an intervention in Cuba by United States armed forces.”
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
