- 1[intransitive] to become involved in a situation in order to improve or help it She might have been killed if the neighbors hadn't intervened. intervene in something The President intervened personally in the crisis.
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- 2[transitive, intransitive] (+ speech) to interrupt someone when they are speaking in order to say something “But,” she intervened, “what about the others?”
- 3[intransitive] to happen in a way that delays something or prevents it from happening They were planning to get married and then the war intervened.
- 4[intransitive] (formal) to exist between two events or places I saw nothing of her during the years that intervened.
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NAmE//ˌɪntərˈvin//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they intervene he / she / it intervenes
past simple intervened
-ing form intervening
NAmE//ˌɪntərˈvɛnʃn//
noun [uncountable, countable] intervention (in something) calls for government intervention to save the steel industry armed/military intervention People resented his repeated interventions in the debate.See intervene in the Oxford Advanced Learner's DictionaryCheck pronunciation: intervene