intercontinental

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér

Proto-Italic *n̥ter

Latin inter

Latin inter-bor.

English inter-

English continent

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālisbor.

Old French -albor.

▲

Latin -ālis

Old French -elbor.

▲

Latin -ālisbor.

Middle English -al

English -al

English continental

English intercontinental

From inter- + continental.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.tə.kɒn.tɪˈnɛn.təl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.tɚ.kɑn.tɪˈnɛn.təl/
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧con‧tin‧ent‧al

Adjective

intercontinental (not comparable)

1. Taking place between two or more continents.
   • 2011, Will Self, “The frowniest spot on Earth”, in London Review of Books, XXXIII.9:

     Not so much wedded as welded to their airline seats, he and his amanuensis see the cities of the future as ‘glocal’ phenomena, where high-density urban centres are air-linked to intercontinental faubourgs.

2. Having the ability to travel between continents.

Derived terms

• intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM
• intercontinentally

Translations

between two or more continents

• Belarusian: міжкантынента́льны (mižkantynjentálʹny)
• Bulgarian: междуконтинента́лен (meždukontinentálen)
• Catalan: intercontinental (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 洲際 / 洲际 (zh) (zhōujì)

• Czech: mezikontinentální (cs)
• Danish: interkontinental
• Finnish: mannertenvälinen
• French: intercontinental (fr)
• Galician: intercontinental
• Georgian: კონტინენტთაშორისი (ḳonṭinenṭtašorisi), საკონტინენტთაშორისო (saḳonṭinenṭtašoriso)
• German: interkontinental (de)
• Greek: διηπειρωτικός (el) (diipeirotikós)
• Italian: intercontinentale (it)
• Japanese: 大陸間 (たいりくかん, tairiku kan)
• Kazakh: құрлықаралық (qūrlyqaralyq)
• Korean: 대륙 간 (daeryuk gan)
• Polish: międzykontynentalny (pl)
• Portuguese: intercontinental (pt)
• Romanian: intercontinental (ro)
• Russian: межконтинента́льный (ru) (mežkontinentálʹnyj)
• Slovak: medzikontinentálný
• Spanish: intercontinental (es)
• Ukrainian: міжконтинента́льний (mižkontynentálʹnyj)
• Yiddish: אינטערקאָנטינענטאַל (interkontinental)

Catalan

Etymology

From inter- +‎ continental.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [in.tər.kun.ti.nənˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [in.tər.kon.ti.nənˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [in.teɾ.kon.ti.nenˈtal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

intercontinental m or f (masculine and feminine plural intercontinentals)

1. intercontinental

French

Etymology

From inter- +‎ continental.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.kɔ̃.ti.nɑ̃.tal/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

Adjective

intercontinental (feminine intercontinentale, masculine plural intercontinentaux, feminine plural intercontinentales)

1. intercontinental

Further reading

• “intercontinental”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French intercontinental.

Adjective

intercontinental m or n (feminine singular intercontinentală, masculine plural intercontinentali, feminine/neuter plural intercontinentale)

1. intercontinental

Declension

Declension of intercontinental

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	intercontinental		intercontinentală	intercontinentali	intercontinentale
	definite	intercontinentalul		intercontinentala	intercontinentalii	intercontinentalele
genitive- dative	indefinite	intercontinental		intercontinentale	intercontinentali	intercontinentale
	definite	intercontinentalului		intercontinentalei	intercontinentalilor	intercontinentalelor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌinteɾkontinenˈtal/ [ˌĩn̪.t̪eɾ.kõn̪.t̪i.nẽn̪ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: in‧ter‧con‧ti‧nen‧tal

Adjective

intercontinental m or f (masculine and feminine plural intercontinentales)

1. intercontinental

Related terms

• continental
• continente

Further reading

• “intercontinental”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025