interior

See also: Interior and interiør

English

Etymology

From Latin interior (“inner, interior”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɪə.ɹɪ.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɪ.ɹi.ɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧i‧or

Adjective

interior (not comparable)

1. Within any limits, enclosure, or substance; inside; internal; inner.

   the interior apartments of a house; the interior surface of a hollow ball

2. Remote from the limits, frontier, or shore; inland.

   the interior parts of a region or country

Alternative forms

• interiour (obsolete)

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

• interior angle
• interior crest
• interior decoration
• interior design
• interior designer
• interiority
• interiorization
• interiorize
• interiorly
• interior Mexican
• interior minister
• interior monologue
• interiorness
• interiorscape

Translations

having to do with the inner part of something

Aragonese: interior Armenian: ներքին (hy) (nerkʻin) Belarusian: уну́траны (be) (unútrany), ну́траны (nútrany) Bulgarian: въ́трешен (bg) (vǎ́trešen) Catalan: interior (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 內部 / 内部 (zh) (nèibù) Czech: vnitřní (cs) Esperanto: ena (eo) Finnish: sisä- (fi) (in compounds), sisäinen (fi); sisustus (fi) (having to do with interior design and decoration) French: intérieur (fr) German: inner (de) Gothic: 𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌿𐌼𐌰 (innuma) Hungarian: belső (hu) Italian: interiore (it), interno (it) Japanese: 内部 (ja) (naibu) Latin: penitus Macedonian: внатрешен (vnatrešen) Maori: o roto Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç) Polish: wewnętrzny (pl) Portuguese: interior (pt) Romanian: intern (ro), interior (ro) Russian: вну́тренний (ru) (vnútrennij) Sanskrit: अन्तर (sa) (antara) Slovak: vnútorný (sk) Slovene: notranji Spanish: interior (es) Turkish: iç (tr), içteki Ukrainian: вну́трішній (vnútrišnij) Walloon: divintrin (wa) m

having to do with the inland parts of a country

Armenian: ներքին (hy) (nerkʻin) Catalan: interior (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 內陸 / 内陆 (zh) (nèilù) Finnish: sisä- (fi), sisämaan (fi) (genitive of the noun) Georgian: საშინაო (sašinao), შიდა (šida) Hungarian: bel- (hu) Maori: uta Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç) Portuguese: interior (pt) m Romanian: intern (ro) Russian: вну́тренний (ru) (vnútrennij) Spanish: interior (es), interiano, interiorano

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: (please verify) intérieur (fr) m Interlingua: (please verify) interior

Noun

interior (plural interiors)

1. The inside of a building, container, cavern, or other enclosed structure.

   The gardens are just divine, but the interior of the house are even more splendid.

2. The inside regions of a country, distanced from the borders or coasts.

   Hypernyms: land; country; area; region; place; location

   Near-synonyms: backcountry, upcountry, hinterland

   Sir Richard Burton explored far into the African interior.

3. (mathematics, topology) The set of all interior points of a set.

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

• minister of the interior
• Secretary of the Interior

Translations

the inside of an enclosed structure

Aragonese: interior m Asturian: interior m Breton: diabarzh (br) m Bulgarian: вътрешност (bg) f (vǎtrešnost) Catalan: interior (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 內部 / 内部 (zh) (nèibù) Dutch: interieur (nl) n Esperanto: interno (eo) Finnish: sisätila (fi), sisus (fi), sisäpuoli (fi) French: intérieur (fr) m Galician: interior (gl) m German: Interieur (de) n, Inneres (de) n, Innenraum (de) m Hungarian: belső (hu) Japanese: 内装 (ja) (ないそう, naisō), 内部 (ja) (ないぶ, naibu), インテリア (ja) (interia) Kongo: kati Norwegian: Bokmål: interiør n Nynorsk: interiør n Old Turkic: 𐰃𐰲 (ič) Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç) Persian: درون (fa) (darun), داخل (fa) (dâxel) Polish: wnętrze (pl) n Portuguese: interior (pt) m Quechua: ukhu (qu) Russian: интерье́р (ru) m (intɛrʹjér), вну́тренность (ru) f (vnútrennostʹ), вну́тренняя часть f (vnútrennjaja častʹ) Sanskrit: अन्तर (sa) n (antara) Spanish: interior (es) m Swedish: interiör (sv), insida (sv), innandöme (sv), det inre Tetum: laran Turkish: iç (tr) Walloon: ådvins (wa) m Yakut: ис (is)

the inside regions of a country

Finnish: sisämaa (fi) Hungarian: belterület (hu) Maori: manowhenua Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç) Persian: داخل (fa) (dâxel) Portuguese: interior (pt) m Russian: вну́тренние райо́ны страны́ m pl (vnútrennije rajóny straný) Turkish: dâhiliye (tr)

the set of all interior points

German: Inneres (de) n, offener Kern m Hebrew: פנים (he) m (pním) Icelandic: innri kjarni m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Interlingua: (please verify) interior Spanish: (please verify) interior (es) m

Further reading

• interior (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• tire iron

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior (the inside of an enclosed structure)

   Antonym: exterior

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interiōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [in.tə.ɾiˈor]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [in.tə.ɾiˈo]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [in.te.ɾiˈoɾ]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

interior m or f (masculine and feminine plural interiors)

1. interior, inner, internal

   Antonym: exterior

Noun

interior m (plural interiors)

1. interior, inside

   Antonym: exterior

Noun

interior m or f by sense (plural interiors)

1. (baseball) infielder

   Coordinate term: exterior

2. (field hockey or ice hockey) inside

Further reading

• “interior”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “interior”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “interior” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “interior” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “interior” in termcat, Centre de Terminologia, 2025.
• “interior” in termcat, Centre de Terminologia, 2025.

Galician

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Adjective

interior m or f (plural interiores)

1. inner, interior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior

Antonyms

• exterior

Latin

Etymology

From the earlier *interus (whence also intrā), from the Proto-Indo-European *h₁énteros (“inner, what is inside”). Cognates include the Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “interior”) and the Ancient Greek ἔντερον (énteron, “intestine, bowel”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɪnˈtɛ.ri.ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [in̪ˈt̪ɛː.ri.or]

Adjective

interior (comparative, neuter interius, no positive form); third declension

1. comparative degree of inter
   1. inner, interior
   2. nearer

Usage notes

• Although this adjective is the comparative form of inter, there is no positive form. The word inter is an adverb and preposition, not an adjective.

Declension

Third-declension comparative adjective.

	singular			plural
	masc./fem.	neuter		masc./fem.	neuter
nominative	interior	interius		interiōrēs	interiōra
genitive	interiōris			interiōrum
dative	interiōrī			interiōribus
accusative	interiōrem	interius		interiōrēs interiōrīs	interiōra
ablative	interiōre interiōrī			interiōribus
vocative	interior	interius		interiōrēs	interiōra

Descendants

• → Asturian: interior
• → Catalan: interior
• → English: interior, interiour
• → French: intérieur (see there for further descendants)
• → Galician: interior
• → Italian: interiore
• → Occitan: interior
• → Portuguese: interior
• → Romanian: interior
• → Spanish: interior

References

• “interior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “interior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “interior”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the interior of Asia: interior Asia; interiora Asiae
    
  • profound scientific education: litterae interiores et reconditae, artes reconditae
    

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin interiōrem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoʁ/ [ĩ.te.ɾɪˈoh], (faster pronunciation) /ĩ.teˈɾjoʁ/ [ĩ.teˈɾjoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoʁ/ [ĩ.te.ɾɪˈoh], (faster pronunciation) /ĩ.teˈɾjoʁ/ [ĩ.teˈɾjoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoɾ/ [ĩ.te.ɾɪˈoɾ], (faster pronunciation) /ĩ.teˈɾjoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoʁ/ [ĩ.te.ɾɪˈoχ], (faster pronunciation) /ĩ.teˈɾjoʁ/ [ĩ.teˈɾjoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoɻ/ [ĩ.te.ɾɪˈoɻ], (faster pronunciation) /ĩ.teˈɾjoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ĩ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with ellision) /ĩ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with ellision, faster pronunciation) /ĩˈtɾjoɾ/, /ẽ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with ellision) /ẽ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with ellision, faster pronunciation) /ẽˈtɾjoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ĩ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with ellision) /ĩ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with ellision, faster pronunciation) /ĩˈtɾjoɾ/, /ẽ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with ellision) /ẽ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with ellision, faster pronunciation) /ẽˈtɾjoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ĩ.tɨˈɾjo.ɾi/, (with ellision) /ĩ.tɾiˈo.ɾi/, (with ellision, faster pronunciation) /ĩˈtɾjo.ɾi/, /ẽ.tɨˈɾjo.ɾi/, (with ellision) /ẽ.tɾiˈo.ɾi/, (with ellision, faster pronunciation) /ẽˈtɾjo.ɾi/

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧te‧ri‧or

Adjective

interior m or f (plural interiores)

1. inner; interior (located in the inside)

   Antonym: exterior

   Não comemos os olhos nem os órgãos interiores.

   We don’t eat the eyes nor the inner organs.

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior; inside

   Antonym: exterior

   Tirei uma bola do interior da caixa.

   I took out a ball from interior the box.

2. country; countryside; interior (regions outside major cities)

   Synonym: campo

   Antonym: cidade

   Esses fazendeiros moraram sempre no interior.

   Those farmers have always lived in the country.

Usage notes

Generally speaking, any part of a Brazilian state that is not in or near its capital or coast is the state's interior. Alternatively, people from smaller cities tend to consider only smaller towns interior, those from small villages tend to consider only places without any collective settlement interior, and so on.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French intérieur.

Noun

interior n (plural interiori)

1. interior

Declension

Declension of interior

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	interior	interiorul		interiori	interiorile
genitive-dative	interior	interiorului		interiori	interiorilor
vocative	interiorule			interiorilor

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inteˈɾjoɾ/ [ĩn̪.t̪eˈɾjoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: in‧te‧rior

Adjective

interior m or f (masculine and feminine plural interiores)

1. inner, interior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior
2. (Venezuela, also used in the plural) male underwear, underpants

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

• camiseta interior
• interior de la República
• interiormente
• lucha interior
• producto bruto interno
• producto interior bruto
• ropa interior

Related terms

• interioridad
• interiorizar
• interno

Further reading

• “interior”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024