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:
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
BTP declared a major incident following the collision, which took place at about 17:15 BST, just south of Elstow, near the road interchange of the A421 and A6.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
In October 2023, Moreno was found dead near the Interstate 5 and State Route 905 interchange.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
Merchants paid about $500 million in interchange on sales tax in Illinois in 2024, including both debit and credit cards, according to data from payments consulting firm CMSPI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The very first words I heard them interchange as I became conscious, were the words of my own thought, “Two One Pound notes.”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Most of the railcar exchanges between Western and Eastern carriers take place at interchanges in Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis or New Orleans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025
"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
I did cities on the ocean, cities with two rivers meeting in the middle, cities with one big river that bent, cities with bridges, crazy interchanges, circles and boulevards.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
Her hair matches this with a long wavy, dense wig that gets interchanged with her game-day hair, a long, single, tight braid, which Gattabrusi called a "powerful hairdo."
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
Havertz continually caused problems by picking up pockets of space with his movement off the ball while Saka, Trossard and Martinelli interchanged in the box to regularly threaten.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2024
It sometimes gets mistakenly interchanged with “Latino” or “Latinx.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
They also have interchanged military and defense institutions with civilian institutions, he said.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 6, 2021
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
Reign coach Laura Harvey’s strategy of interchanging keepers Laurel Ivory and Claudia Dickey for six Challenge Cup matches will pay off because both have enough experience to take over the top spot.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
By morning the fires had largely been contained, but interchanging winds caused intermittent flare-ups.
From Reuters ● Aug. 7, 2023
Realistically, United's ambitions are less lofty and they already have a number of fast international forwards who, presumably, are capable of interchanging.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2022
At first, Jungnickel said, the Americans considered a combination of pushing and interchanging the front skater.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
We met the pacha at meals, interchanging mute salutations.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Howe, Julia Ward
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.
