intervention

American  

[in-ter-ven-shuhn] / ˌɪn tərˈvɛn ʃən /

noun

• interventions
  plural

1. 

   the act or fact of coming or occurring between two people, things, or times.

   Squabbling siblings generally work things out themselves, but this fight called for parental intervention.

   Even the intervention of 20 years hadn’t erased their mutual dislike.

2. interposition or interference of one state in the affairs of another.

   The UN’s prohibition of armed intervention in the civil war can easily be criticized as antihumanitarian.

3. a planned confrontation of someone engaging in self-destructive behavior, such as substance abuse, to convince them to seek treatment.

   She thought her drinking was a well-kept secret until she came home to find six of her siblings and friends ready to conduct an intervention.

4. Education. a targeted short-term teaching strategy for students with specific needs.

   Reading interventions kept several of her students from having to switch to remedial classes.

5. Medicine/Medical. a treatment, procedure, or other action taken to prevent or treat disease, or to improve health in other ways.

   The patient has responded well to nonpharmacological interventions for high blood pressure.

---

intervention British  

/ ˌɪntəˈvɛnʃən /

noun

1. the act of intervening

2. any interference in the affairs of others, esp by one state in the affairs of another

3. economics the action of a central bank in supporting the international value of a currency by buying large quantities of the currency to keep the price up

4. commerce the action of the EU in buying up surplus produce when the market price drops to a certain value

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• reintervention
  noun
• interventional
  adjective
• interventionary
  adjective
• prointervention
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• interventions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of intervention

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Late Latin interventiōn-, stem of interventiō “interruption, occurrence”; equivalent to intervene + -tion

Explanation

An intervention is the act of inserting one thing between others, like a person trying to help. You could be the subject of a school intervention if your teachers call your parents about the bad grades you've been hiding. Intervention comes from the Latin intervenire, meaning "to come between, interrupt." Often an intervention is intended to make things better, like the US government's intervention to give food and aid to Haiti after the earthquake. One common use of the word refers to a specific type of meeting, or intervention, that happens with the family and friends of a drug addict; they join together to try to convince the drug user to change their ways and live a healthier life.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

intervention interventions

Mandy McDowall, Unison Scotland regional organiser, said the intervention of the Scottish government had "helped create the space for further progress".

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

History is the result of the interplay of those great trends and the intervention of individuals and their acts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Asked if this was a sign of increasing activism and intervention in the markets, Bessent countered this wasn’t the case: “We are not an activist Treasury.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Australia’s forests contain many forgotten experiments that could transform our understanding of how forests respond to human intervention.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

Between the recognition that the Torricellian tube is a pressure gauge and the invention of the atmospheric steam engine there was no intervention of an extraneous factor.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

The Charity Commission also said its regulatory interventions to protect Fashion For Relief's funds ensured other charities received almost £250,000 that was owed to them.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

PCE inflation data—the Fed’s preferred inflation metric—for August will likely drive rate expectations Wednesday, as well as interventions from a bevy of Fed policymakers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

To test whether stronger circadian rhythms could improve recovery, the researchers examined several interventions known to affect the body's internal clock.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026

Teenager Amelie Lenham, the player of the match, led the way with a series of crucial interventions as a first-half try from Sinead Peach, plus two goals from Ellie Williamson, proved just enough.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

But within barely a decade, the Klan had been extinguished, largely by legal and military interventions out of Washington, D.C.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

Related Words

• interference
• mediation