interlace
Americanverb (used without object)
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interlaces,
present (3rd person singular)
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interlaced,
past participle, past
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interlacing
present participle
verb (used with object)
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interlaces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
interlaced,
past participle, past
-
interlacing
present participle
-
to unite or arrange (threads, strips, parts, branches, etc.) so as to intercross one another, passing alternately over and under; intertwine.
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to mingle; blend.
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to diversify, as with threads woven in.
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to intersperse; intermingle.
She interlaced her lecture on Schubert with some of his songs.
verb
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to join together (patterns, fingers, etc) by crossing, as if woven; intertwine
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(tr) to mingle or blend in an intricate way
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to change the pattern of; diversify; intersperse
to interlace a speech with humour
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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interlacesimple
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interlacessimple
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have interlacedperfect
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has interlacedperfect
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am interlacingprogressive
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are interlacingprogressive
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is interlacingprogressive
-
have been interlacingperfect progressive
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has been interlacingperfect progressive
Past
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interlacedsimple
-
had interlacedperfect
-
was interlacingprogressive
-
were interlacingprogressive
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had been interlacingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of interlace
1325–75; inter- + lace; replacing Middle English entrelacen < Middle French en-trelacer
Explanation
To interlace is to weave, tangle, or twist things together. When you hold hands with someone, the two of you interlace your fingers. When you do sit ups, you interlace your fingers behind your neck and bend your knees, and if you learn how to make a basket, you'll interlace strips of rattan reeds or willow branches. You can also use this adjective to mean "intersperse," as when you write a short story and attempt to interlace dialogue between paragraphs describing the action. Interlace combines inter-, "between" and the verb lace, "fasten, entwine, or braid."
Vocabulary lists containing interlace
You Bring the Distant Near
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Will Grayson, Will Grayson
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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:
The trick, said Pennes, is to grow vegetables and fruits in separate raised beds and then interlace the remaining ground with native plants.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025
While some propaganda is mendacious, the most effective propaganda will interlace carefully selected verifiable facts with emotional appeals.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2024
A 14th-century Hebrew Bible shimmers with Islamic interlace patterns.
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2022
The trio, which date to the 10th and 11th centuries, are adorned with crosses and Celtic interlace patterns similar to the ones seen on the stones inside the church.”
From Fox News ● Apr. 5, 2019
I slide my steepled fingers, slowly, watching them interlace.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
Compositionally, they’re action-packed interlaces of figures and words: lyrics, rap group names, magical numbers, and place names spelled in Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish and Twi.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
“Eat Your Mind” effectively interlaces Acker’s books with the events in her life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
They disbanded after eight years in what she describes as “fraught” circumstances, and the sense that her band members never took her seriously still interlaces her conversation.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 21, 2019
Rambling as in a Richard Linklater film, they stroll at a lusciously easy speed, as the show’s attention to place interlaces with a search for self.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 2, 2018
Mrs. Gruver sits down and interlaces her hands.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
"Dao" depicts two interlaced events: a wedding near Paris and a funeral ceremony in Guinea-Bissau.
From Barron's ● Feb. 16, 2026
Gathering bits and pieces as rendered in English, the songs are remarkably conversational and down to earth, with humor and fragments of pop culture interlaced with poetic musings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
Participants, now paired up, gripped hands with their partners, fingers interlaced, gazing into one another’s eyes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
But Ms Hidalgo said she wanted to keep the interlaced rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red, symbolising the five continents.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024
Instead they would pile the freshly formed and painted pots interlaced with sun-dried mesquite and make a bonfire of the whole pile.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
An interlacing of memoir and anecdote, it begins with the author as a young boy, growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., left agog by the Bronx Zoo’s immersive Amazon exhibit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Piker began surreptitiously interlacing those uploads with the rest of the company’s Facebook library.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2025
Besides interlacing environmental, scientific and social themes that whirl through zealotry and nihilism, it’s also a first-contact scenario that forces a reckoning.
From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2024
Coldplay is renowned for interlacing its values with its shows, such as the band’s push for environmental sustainability.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2023
Then they rode toward each other, with one line crossing the other, like the fingers of two hands interlacing.
From "In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse" by Joseph Marshall III
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.
