Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.
  • intransitive verb To insert (material) into a text.
  • intransitive verb To insert into a conversation. synonym: introduce.
  • intransitive verb To change or falsify (a text) by introducing new or incorrect material.
  • intransitive verb To estimate a value of (a function or series) between two known values.
  • intransitive verb To create a continuous function that incorporates (a finite set of data), such as creating a curve that passes through a fixed set of points or a surface through a fixed set of curves.
  • intransitive verb To introduce estimated values of (pixel data) into a pixel array to improve the quality of an enlarged digital image.
  • intransitive verb To make insertions or additions.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To insert in a writing; introduce, as a word or phrase not in the original text; especially, to foist in: introduce surreptitiously, as what is spurious or unauthorized.
  • To alter, as a book or manuscript, by insertion of new matter; introduce new words or phrases into; especially, to corrupt or vitiate by spurious insertions or additions.
  • In mathematics and physics, to introduce, in a series of numbers or observations (one or more intermediate terms), in accordance with the law of the series; make the necessary interpolations in: as, to interpolate a number or a table of numbers.
  • To carry on with intermissions; interrupt or discontinue for a time.
  • To interpose; place in an intermediate position.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To renew; to carry on with intermission.
  • transitive verb To alter or corrupt by the insertion of new or foreign matter; especially, to change, as a book or text, by the insertion of matter that is new, or foreign to the purpose of the author.
  • transitive verb (Math.) To fill up intermediate terms of, as of a series, according to the law of the series; to introduce, as a number or quantity, in a partial series, according to the law of that part of the series; to estimate a value at a point intermediate between points of knwon value. Compare extrapolate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb mathematics To estimate the value of a function between two points between which it is tabulated.
  • verb computing During the course of processing some data, and in response to a directive in that data, to fetch data from a different source and process it in-line along with the original data.
  • verb transitive, intransitive To introduce (material) to change the meaning of or falsify a text.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb estimate the value of
  • verb insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin interpolāre, interpolāt-, to touch up, refurbish, from interpolis, refurbished; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • For minor intervals I'd just interpolate from the nearest major/perfect.

    Boing Boing: January 26, 2003 - February 1, 2003 Archives 2003

  • And right here I'd like to interpolate a word or two about Canadian poetry, our native poetry as you will find it, for example, in that precious but often impoverished quarterly known as the Canadian Poetry Magazine.

    Canada Finds Her Voice 1949

  • But right now, none of the observing sites are operating above about 6,600 feet or so, so we have to kind of interpolate a little bit, and we're guessing at this time maybe into the low teens at best for the temperature at this hour.

    CNN Transcript Dec 17, 2006 2006

  • Inkscape has a similar tool called "interpolate", which produces lovely lines by "blending" two separate lines into one flowing shapes.

    Pixel2Life.com: Latest 15 Tutorials 2009

  • "blend fields" will blend, you can try "interpolate", it might give better results.

    VideoHelp.com Forum 2009

  • Berry chose to interpolate music from other leading choral composers including Richard Allain, whose Night wraps Shelley's poem in velvet chords as thick as darkness, adding a sonorous cello melody beautifully played by Katherine Jenkinson that floats through the stars to ravishing effect.

    Così fan tutte; Dream Hunter; Commotio; Stephen Hough, LPO/Alsop – review 2012

  • Caroline Sullivan Margo Guryan Someone I Know Singer-songwriter Margo Guryan doesn't interpolate Bach's Jesu just for kicks on this 1968 obscurity – the familiar melody helps conjure an enchanting sense of deja vu as the ethereal New Yorker sings of meeting a stranger she feels she's known her whole life.

    F&M playlist 2012

  • "It's only a flesh-wound, and he isn't going to die," Sheldon managed to interpolate.

    Chapter 7 2010

  • It requires that one believe the closed system was arranged in specific ways at specific times which we can postulate, argue for, interpolate, or otherwise justify but cannot experientially prove.

    Does It Matter If We're "Reality-Based"?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • For every (x, y) point in the original image, modify its x coordinate through a forward transform, and then determine where it is relative to the estimated lines, and linearly interpolate the y coordinate.

    Dewarping pages « The Half-Baked Maker 2010

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