• Interstitial

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /ɪntəˈstɪʃəl/
    • US IPA: /ɪntəɹˈstɪʃəl/
    • Rhymes: -ɪʃəl

    Origin

    From interstitium + -al.

    Full definition of interstitial

    Adjective

    interstitial

    1. Of, relating to, or situated in an interstice.
      • 1965, Jerome F. Fredrick, Murray L. Schole, Mechanisms of Dental Caries, page 761,The outer surface is covered with variable amounts of dental plaque and saliva. The inner surface is bathed in interstitial fluid or lymph.
      • 1999, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon,That he ran the risk of blowing out the stained-glass windows was of no consequence since no one liked them anyway, and the paper mill fumes were gnawing at the interstitial lead.
      • 2011, Chris Mulryan, Acute Illness Management, page 27,The interstitial fluid is located between cells and the capillaries. This fluid provides a bridge between the fluid in the intravascular compartment and the intracellular compartment. Chemicals in the blood must pass through the interstitial fluid if they are to reach cells.

    Noun

    interstitial

    (plural interstitials)
    1. (Internet) A webpage, usually carrying advertising, displayed before a content page.
      • 2007, Barbara Ballard, Designing the Mobile User Experience, page 126,Interstitials should be used sparingly. Display an ad only the first time the user accesses a piece of content, not every time.
    2. (physics) An interstitial discontinuity in a crystal.
      • 2008, E. G. Seebauer et al., Defect Engineering for Ultrashallow Junctions using Surfaces, in P. J. Timans, E. P. Gusev, H. Iwai, D.-L. Kwong, M. C. Öztürk, F. Roozeboom (editors), Advanced Gate Stack, Source/Drain, and Channel Engineering for Si-Based CMOS 4: New Materials, Processes, and Equipment, ECS Transactions: Volume 13, Issue 1, page 56,The second mechanism, which is the primary focus of the present paper, involves insertion of interstitials into dangling bonds at the surface.
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