The verb 'inter' means to bury something, usually a deceased human or animal. The implication of the term is that some kind of ceremony is observed, that funeral, or funereal, rites are involved in the burial.

The word can also be used in the sense of laying to rest, finishing with, or dispensing with, something other than a corpse; something which, perhaps, has simply been around too long and has died, in one way or another.

Example sentences using the verb 'inter', the noun 'interment' and the adjective 'interred':

'Unsure of the religion or nationality of the deceased, the authorities decided to inter the body in a neutral burial area. The interment was overseen by officers of the Coroner's department, who have previously interred persons in this manner as part of their duties.'

'In the case of many deaths at one time owing to disaster, war or disease, when individual identification is impossible, it can be necessary to inter the bodies in mass graves if the deceased persons cannot be left uninterred because of hygiene considerations. The interment is always conducted with ceremony appropriate to local cultures.'

'The meeting concluded that after weeks of fruitless discussion on the office party venue no resolution seemed possible. It was decided to inter the whole file of alternatives and simply hold the party at work, as usual.'

'At the end of the meeting, the office wit conducted a ritual interment of the now-dead file, burying it in the bottom drawer under 'X'.'

The prefix, 'inter-' means amid, among, between, mutually, reciprocally, together, within:

interact: (verb) to act together or with others: 'We encourage staff to interact in a positive manner.'

interchange: (verb) to change places, to exchange; to alternate: 'An international standard for information interchange is required to ensure efficient inter-operability.'

international: (adjective) existing between countries, involving several countries, (in) more than one country: 'International flights are delayed owing to climatic conditions.'

internecine: (adjective) within the same group or organization: 'The atmosphere at dinner was volatile owing to internecine family disputes.'

interval: (noun) a gap or space in time, or between more than one thing: 'Refreshments are available at the theatre in the interval between acts.'; 'The interval between plants should allow them sufficient space to spread as they grow.'

interview: (noun) meeting, formal conference: 'We were satisfied with the candidate's initial interview; it was a productive meeting.'

The sense in which the prefix 'inter-' is used is generally self-explanatory, given the word which it prefixes.

Some terms, such as inter-city, inter-ethnic, inter-generational, inter-library, and so on, are hyphenated for ease of pronunciation or spelling, or because these terms have been prefixed in order to express relatively new concepts: we are comfortable with the separation, with the feel of a phrase rather than a whole word, though not comfortable with separating the words completely:

'The inter-city bus route provides stops at local government offices.'

'Our new inter-ethnic cultural centre will open next month.'

'Take into account inter-generational preferences when planning the program.'

'We need to streamline the inter-library research facility.'

The hyphen is optional in these cases and, in time, some or all words in this category will permanently lose their hyphen.

There are also examples where the Latin term 'inter' is used as a whole word in English, such as in the mainly legal and frequently italicized term inter alia (adverb: among other things):

The meeting decided, inter alia, that future meetings will be held earlier in the day.'

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