intern
/ˈɪn.tɜːn/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈɪn.tɝːn/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈin-ˌtərn/ (ame, mw) · /ɪnˈtɜːn/ (bre, ipa) · /ɪnˈtɜːrn/ (ame, ipa)
intern — noun
- internsingular
- internsplural
1. a student or recent graduate who joins a company or organisation for a fixed per
a student or recent graduate who joins a company or organisation for a fixed period — often during the summer or for a few months — to learn a job by doing real work, sometimes for low pay or no pay at all.
Sivan worked as a marketing intern at a small design studio in Tel Aviv last summer.
intern at + [company] pattern
The bank hires twenty interns each June and pays them a small monthly stipend.
plural form 'interns'; subject is an institution
Andrés was the only intern in the legal team, so the lawyers gave him a lot of attention.
Most of our interns come from local universities and stay for about three months.
Kemi spent her gap year as an unpaid intern at a wildlife charity in Nairobi.
- trainee
broader; includes paid junior staff in formal training programmes, not only students.
- apprentice
traditionally used for skilled manual trades (carpenter, electrician); usually paid and longer-term.
- placement student
British equivalent in university work-experience programmes.
文法句型
intern at + [company]
intern with + [organization]
用法筆記
Subject of the verb 'intern at/with' is the person; the company or organisation goes after the preposition. Distinguish from sense 2 (junior hospital doctor) — that sense is American and almost always appears with 'hospital' or 'medical' nearby.
常見錯誤
2. in American hospitals, a recently qualified medical-school graduate working unde
in American hospitals, a recently qualified medical-school graduate working under senior doctors during the first year after the degree, before becoming a fully independent physician.
Daichi had been working as a surgical intern for six months when he assisted on his first heart operation.
common collocation: surgical intern
The hospital's interns often work shifts longer than thirty hours, which has caused public concern.
Iris finished medical school in May and started as an intern at Boston General the next month.
Senior doctors review every decision an intern makes about patient care.
用法筆記
Almost exclusively American — British hospitals use 'junior doctor' or the older term 'houseman' for the same role. Used with 'medical', 'surgical', or a specialism word, or simply with a hospital name in context. Distinguish from sense 1: in sense 2 the work setting is always a hospital and the person already holds a medical degree.
intern — verb
- internpresent simple I / you / we / they
- internshe / she / it
- internedpast simple
- interning-ing form
1. to take a temporary, often low-paid or unpaid job at a company or organisation i
to take a temporary, often low-paid or unpaid job at a company or organisation in order to learn the work and build experience, usually as a student or recent graduate.
Hoa is interning at a Vietnamese tech firm in Ho Chi Minh City for the whole summer.
intern at + [company]; present continuous for a temporary role
Élise interned with a human-rights group in Geneva before applying to law school.
past form 'interned' + 'before applying' time link
Many engineering students hope to intern at major car companies after their second year.
Christopher interned for a local newspaper, which later offered him a full-time reporting job.
If you intern with us this autumn, you will work on real client projects from week one.
- train
more general; includes any structured learning at work, not only short student placements.
- apprentice
(as a verb) usually for skilled manual trades; longer-term than interning.
文法句型
intern at + [company]
intern with + [organization]
intern for + [person/organization]
用法筆記
Always intransitive — needs a preposition ('at', 'with', or 'for') before the place. Subject is typically a student or new graduate, not someone mid-career. Distinguish from sense 2: this sense never has a direct object naming a person who is being held against their will.
常見錯誤
2. to hold someone, often a foreign national, in a camp or other restricted place d
to hold someone, often a foreign national, in a camp or other restricted place during a war or political emergency, without giving them a normal criminal trial.
During the war, the government interned thousands of citizens who had Japanese ancestry.
active form with historical-event subject; specific group as object
Yasmin's great-grandfather was interned on the Isle of Man between 1940 and 1944.
passive: 'was interned' + place + dates
Several journalists were interned without trial after the military coup.
The army interned anyone suspected of helping the enemy and sent them to remote camps.
文法句型
intern + [person]
be interned in + [place]
用法筆記
Frequently passive — the focus is usually on who was held, not who did the holding. The object is a person or group, never an object or animal. Distinguish from 'imprison': 'intern' implies emergency wartime detention without criminal charges; 'imprison' implies a normal criminal sentence.
常見錯誤
intern — adjective
- internpositive
- more interncomparative
- most internsuperlative
1. rarely used today — an old, formal way of saying 'internal', i.e. existing or ha
rarely used today — an old, formal way of saying 'internal', i.e. existing or happening inside something rather than on the outside. Modern English almost always uses 'internal' instead.
Older medical texts sometimes describe an intern injury, but modern doctors say 'internal injury'.
metalinguistic example showing the modern preference
Faisal found 'intern' used as an adjective in a nineteenth-century philosophy book.
highlights the archaic use; supports the 'archaic' label
Dictionaries still list 'intern' as a formal adjective meaning 'internal', though almost nobody uses it that way now.
In an old letter mentioning an 'intern dispute', the writer simply meant 'internal'.
用法筆記
Almost never used in modern English — learners should choose 'internal' in their own writing and reading. Recognise this sense only when reading older texts. Comes before a noun (attributive), not after 'be'.