Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lying or occurring between two extremes or in a middle position or state.
  • noun One that is in a middle position or state.
  • noun An intermediary.
  • noun Chemistry A substance formed as a necessary stage in the manufacture of a desired end product.
  • noun An automobile that is smaller than a full-sized model but larger than a compact.
  • intransitive verb To act as an intermediary; mediate.
  • intransitive verb To intervene.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To act intermediately; intervene; interpose.
  • In musical notation, of sharps or flats, accidental; not in the signature.
  • Situated between two extremes; coming between, in either position or degree; intervening; interposed: generally followed by between when the extremes are mentioned: as, an intermediate space; intermediate obstacles.
  • noun In mathematics, a syzygetic function: thus, if U and V are quantics of the same order, and if λ and μ are indeterminate constants, λU + μV is an intermediate of U and V.
  • noun An intermediary.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To come between; to intervene; to interpose.
  • adjective Lying or being in the middle place or degree, or between two extremes; coming or done between; intervening; interposed; interjacent
  • adjective Of or pertaining to an intermediate school.
  • adjective (Theol.) the state or condition of the soul between the death and the resurrection of the body.
  • adjective (Math.) the terms of a progression or series between the first and the last (which are called the extremes); the means.
  • adjective (Arch.) Same as Intertie.
  • noun A person who intermediates between others, especially in negotiations; an intermediary; a mediator.
  • noun Something that is intermediate.
  • noun (Chem.) A compound which is produced in the course of a chemical synthesis, which is not itself the final product, but is used in further reactions which produce the final product; also called synthetic intermediate, intermediate compound or intermediate product; -- contrasted to starting material and end product or final product. There may be many different intermediates between the starting material and end product in the course of a complex synthesis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range.
  • noun Anything in an intermediate position.
  • noun An intermediary.
  • noun chemistry Any substance formed as part of a series of chemical reactions that is not the end-product.
  • verb intransitive to mediate, to be an intermediate
  • verb transitive to arrange, in the manner of a broker

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a substance formed during a chemical process before the desired product is obtained
  • adjective around the middle of a scale of evaluation
  • verb act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
  • adjective lying between two extremes in time or space or state

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin intermediātus, from Late Latin intermedius : Latin inter-, inter- + Latin medius, middle; see medhyo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin intermediatus, past participle of intermediare, from inter + Late Latin mediare ("to mediate"); also Latin intermedius

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word intermediate.

Examples

  • Schumacher's emphasis on what he called "intermediate technology" neither basic nor large-scale as the solution to many of the world's problems led to the creation of the Intermediate Technology Development Group, now Practical Action, which recently hosted a celebration of his life.

    Why haven't politicians heeded the wisdom of EF Schumacher? | Jonathan Glennie 2011

  • Schumacher's emphasis on what he called "intermediate technology" neither basic nor large-scale as the solution to many of the world's problems led to the creation of the Intermediate Technology Development Group, now Practical Action, which recently hosted a celebration of his life.

    Why haven't politicians heeded the wisdom of EF Schumacher? | Jonathan Glennie 2011

  • Robert Stovall, managing director of Wood Asset Management, tells Wallace Forbes about ways to invest in what he calls the intermediate term, cyclical bull market that we're in.

    May Looks Strong For Stocks 2010

  • If there were only one term intermediate between E and F (viz. that the circle is made equal to a rectilinear figure by the help of lunules), we should be near to knowledge.

    PRIOR ANALYTICS Aristotle 1989

  • Huxley made the most careful distinction between what he called intermediate types and types with a right to be placed in linear order,

    Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work 1904

  • Huxley made the most careful distinction between what he called intermediate types and types with a right to be placed in linear order,

    Thomas Henry Huxley A Sketch Of His Life And Work Mitchell, P Chalmers 1900

  • But there is another question in your last letter -- one about which a person can only give an impression -- and my impression is that, speaking of plants of a well-known flora, what we call intermediate varieties are generally less numerous in individuals than the two states which they connect.

    More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 Charles Darwin 1845

  • He has written two popular college-level textbooks: one in intermediate macroeconomics and the more famous Principles of Economics.

    Matthew Yglesias » Fed Members Needed! 2010

  • This is why you see so much castle-medieval-fantasy in intermediate short stories, the conventions are part of the culture so we don't need a lot of explanation to grasp the story.

    Fantasy in Very Small Doses 2009

  • This is why you see so much castle-medieval-fantasy in intermediate short stories, the conventions are part of the culture so we don't need a lot of explanation to grasp the story.

    Archive 2009-03-01 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.