in·ter·rupt·ed
ˌin-tə-ˈrəp-təd 
1
: broken in upon : discontinuous
an interrupted stripe
interrupted service
an interrupted phone call
interrupted sleep
2
botany
: not uniform : broken in arrangement or symmetry
… flowers whorled in interrupted clusters.—
Charles E. Turner
Charles E. Turner3
phonetics
: consisting of or containing a stop in articulation
\k\ is an interrupted consonant
interruptedly
adverb
… Jeanne's mother had been … schoolmate and good girlfriend to Maria Gostrey, who had moreover enjoyed since then, though interruptedly … , other glimpses of her.
—Henry James
Henry James
interruptedness
noun
"I am much obliged to you for giving me full notice," he said, with a firm intention in his tone, yet with an interruptedness in his delivery which showed that he spoke unwillingly.
—George Eliot
George Eliot
interrupted
2 of 2past tense and past participle of interrupt entry 1
Examples of interrupted in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Jan. 2026
People typically check their email between 15 to over 30 times a day, and according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, employees are now interrupted hundreds of times per day by digital pings, which puts workers in perpetual context-switching and fragmented attention.
—Jason Walker Psyd, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026
Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time on Wednesday.
—Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 14 Jan. 2026
Funds raised during the 2025 Grammy Awards telecast, MusiCares’ Persons of the Year event and additional fundraising efforts were used to help deal with housing instability, interrupted income, physical health complications and ongoing trauma.
—David Wilson, Daily News, 7 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for interrupted
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Adjective
All three saw their seasons either interrupted or cut short by injuries.
—John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Jan. 2026
People typically check their email between 15 to over 30 times a day, and according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, employees are now interrupted hundreds of times per day by digital pings, which puts workers in perpetual context-switching and fragmented attention.
—Jason Walker Psyd, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026
Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time on Wednesday.
—Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 14 Jan. 2026
Funds raised during the 2025 Grammy Awards telecast, MusiCares’ Persons of the Year event and additional fundraising efforts were used to help deal with housing instability, interrupted income, physical health complications and ongoing trauma.
—David Wilson, Daily News, 7 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for interrupted
Cite this Entry
“Interrupted.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interrupted. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
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