Intermittent Meaning
/ˌɪntəˈmɪtn̩t/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjStopping and starting, occurring, or presenting at intervals; coming after a particular time span.
adjExisting only for certain seasons; that is, being dry for part of the year.
Sentence Examples
Intermittent flashes of lightning illuminated the dark gloom of the forest.
Tom tried intermittent fasting, but died of complications soon after.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The patient experienced ____ pain that came and went throughout the day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The car engine was making an ____ clicking sound that only seemed to happen when I was driving slowly.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French intermittent, from Latin intermittens (“sending between”), from prefix inter- (“among, on”) + mittens (“sending”), from mittere (“to send”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Also bloudletting is good in feuers, whether they be continual or intermittent […]"
— 1564, Philip Moore, chapter 13, in The Hope of Health, London:
"[…] the Gift of Prophecy […] was in the mind not as an Inhabitant, but as a Guest; that is, by intermittent Returns and Ecstasies, by Occasional Raptures and Revelations; as is clear from what we read of the Prophets in the Old Testament."
— 1698, Robert South, Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume 3, London: Thomas Bennet, page 511:
"[…] Pale through night’s curtain gleam’d
By fits the lunar intermittent ray,
That quiv’ring serv’d to light his lonely steps"
— 1792, Richard Cumberland, Calvary: or The Death of Christ, London: C. Dilly, Book 5, lines 364-366, p. 164:
"[…] by degrees the talk became as flickering and intermittent as the light of the dying fire, which they were too idle to feed with sticks […]"
— 1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 20, in Lud-in-the-Mist, London: Millennium, published 2000, page 193:
"[…] three scruffy-looking young men with intermittent facial hair and starvation-symptom physiques."
— 2015, John Irving, chapter 18, in Avenue of Mysteries, New York: Simon and Schuster, page 238:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The patient experienced ____ pain that came and went throughout the day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The car engine was making an ____ clicking sound that only seemed to happen when I was driving slowly.