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
Derived Forms
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interchangeabilitynoun
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interchangernoun
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preinterchangenoun
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interchangeableadjective
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interchangeablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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interchangesimple
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interchangessimple
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have interchangedperfect
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has interchangedperfect
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am interchangingprogressive
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are interchangingprogressive
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is interchangingprogressive
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have been interchangingperfect progressive
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has been interchangingperfect progressive
Past
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interchangedsimple
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had interchangedperfect
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was interchangingprogressive
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were interchangingprogressive
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had been interchangingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
A construction company agreed to pay $11 million last year to resolve environmental violations after it admitted it used more than 4,000 tons of contaminated fill to rebuild a Rhode Island state highway interchange.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Merchants and the law’s supporters say lower interchange fees have been passed onto consumers and helped keep prices down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
An air ambulance was dispatched as part of the emergency response to the collision, which happened just south of Elstow, near the the road interchange of the A421 and A6.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
In October 2023, Moreno was found dead near the Interstate 5 and State Route 905 interchange.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
A half hour later, when she spied the enormous elevated interchange loom up ahead of them, she gasped and put one hand to the side of her face.
From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty
Together these two observations summarize “Where the Music Had to Go,” Jim Windolf’s engrossing take on the playful and sometimes competitive interchanges that occurred over the years between Mr. Dylan and the Beatles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
"We Ivorians never imagined we could have bridges, interchanges, and major roads like this!" exclaimed Moustapha, a tour guide, during a long guided tour for AFP of the city.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2025
“There are some groups out there that want to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on more, bigger, wider interchanges across the state,” Walker said at the time.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024
Crews will be working to widen Interstate 90 between the Cabin Creek and West Easton interchanges southwest of the Snoqualmie summit, according to a news release from the Washington State Department of Transportation.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
Except that here the cars were driving above and under each other as if they were on interchanges that were stacked ten storeys high.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
The last third of your book is so completely like “The Grapes of Wrath” that the families and characters might basically be interchanged in the two.
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2024
It sometimes gets mistakenly interchanged with “Latino” or “Latinx.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
First, they found the phone number the government lists for its hotline is inaccurate, with two numbers interchanged.
From Washington Times ● May 31, 2018
When two rows are interchanged, the determinant changes sign.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 13, 2015
Christmas and the New Year had been celebrated at Gateshead with the usual festive cheer; presents had been interchanged, dinners and evening parties given.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Wiegman often uses James as a winger, interchanging with Manchester City's Hemp on the opposite side, but she can also play as a number 10.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2025
By morning the fires had largely been contained, but interchanging winds caused intermittent flare-ups.
From Reuters ● Aug. 7, 2023
The Sounders need goals and maybe interchanging playmakers in Rusnak and Lodeiro is better than continuing to mash them together.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
At first, Jungnickel said, the Americans considered a combination of pushing and interchanging the front skater.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
We passed a quarter of an hour in close examination of each other, interchanging as well as we could a few Russian words which very inadequately expressed our thoughts.
From Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century by Adams, W. H. Davenport
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.
