interrupt

Meanings

Verb

• To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly.
• To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
• To assert to (a computer) that an exceptional condition must be handled.

Noun

• An event that causes a computer or other device to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition.

Related

Opposite words

• continue
• resume

Origin

• Borrowed from Latin interruptus, from interrumpo, from inter + rumpo.