What does "intern" mean?

A person who is interned, forcibly or voluntarily.

Intern

Common synonyms include: addressee, allopath, allopathist, apprentice teacher, artist-in-residence, attending physician.

//ɪnˈtɝn// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
A person who is interned, forcibly or voluntarily.
2
A student or recent graduate who works in order to gain experience in their chosen field.
"Students know that working as an intern can provide contacts and all-important experience in their chosen fields. And last year, 26 percent of graduates hired by companies had worked as interns, compared with 9 percent the year before."
3
an advanced student or graduate in medicine gaining supervised practical experience wordnet
4
A medical student or recent graduate working in a hospital as a final part of medical training.

Verb

1
To imprison somebody, usually without trial. transitive
"The US government interned thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II."
2
To work as an intern, usually with little or no pay or other legal prerogatives of employment, and for the purpose of furthering a program of education. intransitive
"I'll be interning at Universal Studios this summer."
3
work as an intern wordnet
4
To imprison somebody, usually without trial.; To confine or hold (foreign military personnel who stray into the state's territory) within prescribed limits during wartime. transitive
"The Swiss government interned the Italian soldiers who had strayed onto Swiss territory."
5
deprive of freedom wordnet

Show 1 more definition

6
To internalize. transitive
"Strings are automatically interned if they are assigned to a literal string within code."

Adjective

1
Internal. archaic
"Man was made after Gods image, which must be understood of the intern graces of the Soule"

"The intern died after working for 72 hours without sleep."

Etymology 1

From French interner, from interne (“inner, internal”), from Latin internus (“within, internal”), compare Etymology 2.

Etymology 2

From French interne (“inner, internal”), from Latin internus (“within, internal”), from inter (“between”); compare Etymology 1.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.