intertwine
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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intertwines,
present (3rd person singular)
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intertwined,
past participle, past
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intertwining
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
intertwinesimple
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intertwinessimple
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have intertwinedperfect
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has intertwinedperfect
-
am intertwiningprogressive
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are intertwiningprogressive
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is intertwiningprogressive
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have been intertwiningperfect progressive
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has been intertwiningperfect progressive
Past
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intertwinedsimple
-
had intertwinedperfect
-
was intertwiningprogressive
-
were intertwiningprogressive
-
had been intertwiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of intertwine
Explanation
Things that intertwine are twisted or mixed together. You have to intertwine yarn to make a scarf. When things intertwine, they're all mixed up together — it's hard to separate them. To make any type of clothing, threads have to be intertwined. Rope is made of smaller fibers that intertwine. Related jobs—like a writer and an editor—intertwine too, because they are so closely related. You can say people are intertwined if they're close to each other, as family or friends. Getting intertwined could be a metaphor for getting married; the threads of your lives are getting tangled together.
Vocabulary lists containing intertwine
The Distance Between Us
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The Sea of Monsters
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King and the Dragonflies
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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:
Throughout these tales, the careers of eminent scientific figures intertwine with the lives of ordinary people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
But navigating the ins and outs of stories that intertwine without overstepping has required nimbleness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
As she offers her prayers, the sacred space becomes a moment of spiritual release, where devotion and vulnerability intertwine.
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2024
As I mention in the book, I see my mother’s approach to cooking much like a painter’s canvas, where the universality of art and cooking beautifully intertwine.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024
We intertwine our fingers and close our eyes against the sun.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
Chapter by chapter, the author intertwines the sagas of both sets of grandparents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
The deal further intertwines Musk's sprawling business empire, which already includes carmaker Tesla and social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
The bold, unconventional “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” intertwines jazz with decolonization in its telling of newfound, fragile Congolese independence during the Cold War.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2025
"But now there's a very direct lineage between local teams, larger structures like the NFL Academy, leagues and how it all intertwines."
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2024
Each of the first two pairs intertwines with the other: the last, Mort Artus, completes them all, and thus its title was not improperly used in later times to designate the whole Legend.
From The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by George Saintsbury
A hefty Moche nose ornament of gold and silver would have been quite the weight to carry from one’s septum, especially with the intricately intertwined creatures that wrap around its edge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
His life has been intertwined with money, business, politics and privilege — for better or worse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Owens saw clearly, Spencer said, how culture and politics were intertwined.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
While geographic proximity ensures the two countries will remain intertwined, the deeply integrated economic relationship of recent decades may be coming to an end.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Their laughter intertwined but when they looked at each other, they could see the tears forming were not from joy.
From "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin
Ellison’s subject was America, whose many intertwining strands he saw as forming one great ecosystem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
The deal would signal a deeper "intertwining" of the government and private businesses in the US, following a trend seen elsewhere in places like China, Mr Nicholson told the BBC.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2025
In Mussolini’s Italy, intellectuals were coerced into swearing loyalty to the fascist state, and scholarship became a tool of nationalist propaganda, intertwining classical myths with imperial ambition.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2025
Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano star in Liz Feldman’s dark comedy, now streaming on Netflix, about real estate and intertwining lives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2024
David sat next to me and took my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
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.
