intersperse
Americanverb (used with object)
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intersperses,
present (3rd person singular)
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interspersed,
past participle, past
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interspersing
present participle
verb
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to scatter or distribute among, between, or on
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to diversify (something) with other things scattered here and there
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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interspersesimple
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interspersessimple
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have interspersedperfect
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has interspersedperfect
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am interspersingprogressive
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are interspersingprogressive
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is interspersingprogressive
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have been interspersingperfect progressive
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has been interspersingperfect progressive
Past
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interspersedsimple
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had interspersedperfect
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was interspersingprogressive
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were interspersingprogressive
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had been interspersingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of intersperse
1560–70; < Latin interspersus (past participle of interspergere to strew here and there), equivalent to inter- inter- + -spersus, combining form of sparsus, past participle of spargere to scatter; see disperse
Explanation
When you intersperse something, you scatter it with spaces in between, the way you intersperse vegetable seeds along a row in a garden bed. A wallpaper pattern might intersperse polka dots with bright flowers, and a writer might intersperse colorful details throughout an essay on the sword fishing industry. If you place things here and there, at intervals or leaving room between each item, you intersperse them. The Latin root is interspersus, "strewn or scattered," and in the mid-1500s the word intersperse was used mostly to mean "diversify by introducing things at intervals."
Vocabulary lists containing intersperse
"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
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The Hunger Games
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This Week in Pop Culture: April 6–12, 2019
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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:
While Hartman believes it’s best to intersperse the music between races, it’s not the only way to do things.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024
She asked that the new pieces be about 10 minutes long, and that they come in two or three fragments that she could intersperse with other scores without violating the meaning of the music.
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
The same holds true for Peloton’s bootcamp classes, which intersperse floor exercises with cycling / running.
From The Verge ● Jan. 31, 2022
When ready to make the drink, intersperse the watermelon ice cubes with regular ice and cucumber wheels.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 20, 2021
Footnote 1: I am told that the peasants of the country round Moscow have a natural gift for imitating birds, and that they intersperse the singing of their own sad songs with this sweet carolling.
From Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs (1886) by Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco
In the book, subtitled “Love, Loss, and a Really Long Walk,” the author intersperses dispatches from her trip with harrowing personal reflections on marriage, motherhood and the self.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
Paint the Night is a vibrant, high-energy show that intersperses dance, tech and the requisite amount of evening sparkle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025
Egoyan intersperses scenes set in the present with home video footage of Jeanine as a child, shot by her own father, blindfolded and doing strange dances in the woods.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2025
A vast number of caves and rock shelters intersperses the mountains.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024
A Child of Our Time intersperses quasi-operatic narrative passages with arrangements of African-American spirituals, as Bach had done with Lutheran hymn-chorales in his oratorios on the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The centerpiece is the three minutes where Travis calmly narrates the plane crash interspersed with him drumming, amid flames, in a way that captures each emotional beat of what he went through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The recipes are interspersed with stories from Kwon’s childhood in the store and illustrated spreads devoted to ingredients such as seaweed and tofu, explaining their varieties, particular virtues and best uses.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
In interspersed interviews, Knoxville and his pals reminisce about their time together with a distinct wistfulness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Each will exert an influence on our weather this week, which means spells of potentially hot sunshine interspersed with occasional bursts of rain.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
Its vocal ranges were operatic, its naturalistic acting style more like that of a play, its structure of spoken plot-carrying scenes interspersed with verse-chorus- designed songs akin to those in musicals.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
With a growing online fanbase, he started interspersing TikTok cover versions with snippets of originals.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2025
Auster adds more color to the proceedings by interspersing his narrative with samples of his characters’ autobiographical writings: Anna’s stories and Baumgartner’s account of his trip “through the bloodlands of Eastern Europe.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2023
Sister Sylvester led the audience through a communal reading of her intricately designed, handmade books while El Shazly performed her score live, interspersing moody electronics and vintage Egyptian recordings with her own, smoky-hued singing.
From New York Times ● May 4, 2023
As the movie travels through the mid-’90s into the early 2000s, Rockwell chronicles a rapidly changing New York during the Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg mayorships, accented by interspersing real audio clips and speeches.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 10, 2023
He had such a way of interspersing enlivening comments between the speakers.
From Little Abe Or, The Bishop of Berry Brow by F. Jewell
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.
