interior

See also: Interior and interiør

English

Etymology

From Latin interior (“inner, interior”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɪə.ɹɪ.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɪ.ɹi.ɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧i‧or

Adjective

interior (not comparable)

1. Within any limits, enclosure, or substance; inside; internal; inner.

   the interior apartments of a house; the interior surface of a hollow ball

2. Remote from the limits, frontier, or shore; inland.

   the interior parts of a region or country

Alternative forms

• interiour (obsolete)

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

• interior angle
• interior crest
• interior decoration
• interior design
• interior designer
• interiority
• interiorization
• interiorize
• interiorly
• interior Mexican
• interior monologue
• interiorness
• interiorscape

Translations

having to do with the inner part of something

Aragonese: interior Armenian: ներքին (hy) (nerkʻin) Belarusian: уну́траны (be) (unútrany), ну́траны (nútrany) Bulgarian: въ́трешен (bg) (vắtrešen) Catalan: interior (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 內部 / 内部 (zh) (nèibù) Czech: vnitřní (cs) Esperanto: ena (eo) Finnish: sisä- (fi) (in compounds), sisäinen (fi), sisäpuolinen; sisustus- (of or pertaining to interior design) French: intérieur (fr) German: inner (de) Gothic: 𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌿𐌼𐌰 (innuma) Hindi: आंतरिक (hi) (āntrik), अंतः (hi) (antaḥ) Hungarian: belső (hu) Italian: interiore (it), interno (it) Japanese: 内部 (ja) (naibu) Latin: penitus Macedonian: внатрешен (vnatrešen) Māori: o roto Polish: wewnętrzny (pl) Portuguese: interior (pt) Romanian: intern (ro), interior (ro) Russian: вну́тренний (ru) (vnútrennij) Sanskrit: अन्तर (sa) (antara) Slovak: vnútorný (sk) Slovene: notranji Spanish: interior (es) Turkish: iç (tr), içteki Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç), داخل (dâhil) Ukrainian: вну́трішній (vnútrišnij) Walloon: divintrin (wa) m

having to do with the inland parts of a country

Armenian: ներքին (hy) (nerkʻin) Catalan: interior (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 內陸 / 内陆 (zh) (nèilù) Finnish: sisä- (fi), sisämaan (fi) (genitive of the noun) Georgian: საშინაო (sašinao), შიდა (šida) Hindi: आंतरिक (hi) (āntrik) Hungarian: bel- (hu) Māori: uta Portuguese: interior (pt) m Romanian: intern (ro) Russian: вну́тренний (ru) (vnútrennij) Spanish: interior (es), interiano, interiorano Turkish: Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç), داخل (dâhil) Vietnamese: nội địa (vi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: (please verify) intérieur (fr) m Interlingua: (please verify) interior

Noun

interior (plural interiors)

1. The inside of a building, container, cavern, or other enclosed structure.

   The gardens are just divine, but the interior of the house are even more splendid.

2. The inside regions of a country, continent, etc., distanced from the borders or coasts.

   Hypernyms: land; country; area; region; place; location

   Near-synonyms: backcountry, upcountry, hinterland

   Sir Richard Burton explored far into the African interior.

   • 1989, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 623:

     Nearly 44 percent of all cargo involves the Soviet Union; 10 percent is transit goods for the landlocked European interior—Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria.

3. (mathematics, topology) The set of all interior points of a set.

Antonyms

• exterior

Translations

the inside of an enclosed structure

Aragonese: interior m Asturian: interior m Breton: diabarzh (br) m Bulgarian: вътрешност (bg) f (vătrešnost) Catalan: interior (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 內部 / 内部 (zh) (nèibù) Dutch: interieur (nl) n Esperanto: interno (eo) Finnish: sisätila (fi), sisus (fi), sisäpuoli (fi) French: intérieur (fr) m Galician: interior (gl) m German: Interieur (de) n, Inneres (de) n, Innenraum (de) m Hindi: अंतः (hi) (antaḥ) Hungarian: belső (hu) Japanese: 内装 (ja) (ないそう, naisō), 内部 (ja) (ないぶ, naibu), インテリア (ja) (interia) Kongo: kati Norwegian: Bokmål: interiør n Nynorsk: interiør n Old Turkic: 𐰃𐰲 (ič) Persian: درون (fa) (darun), داخل (fa) (dâxel) Polish: wnętrze (pl) n Portuguese: interior (pt) m Quechua: ukhu (qu) Russian: интерье́р (ru) m (intɛrʹjér), вну́тренность (ru) f (vnútrennostʹ), вну́тренняя часть f (vnútrennjaja častʹ) Sanskrit: अन्तर (sa) n (antara) Spanish: interior (es) m Swedish: interiör (sv), insida (sv), innandöme (sv), det inre Tetum: laran Turkish: iç (tr) Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç), داخل (dâhil) Vietnamese: nội thất (vi) Walloon: ådvins (wa) m Yakut: ис (is)

the inside regions of a country

Finnish: sisämaa (fi) Hindi: आंतरिक (hi) (āntrik) Hungarian: belterület (hu) Māori: manowhenua Persian: داخل (fa) (dâxel) Portuguese: interior (pt) m Russian: вну́тренние райо́ны страны́ m pl (vnútrennije rajóny straný) Turkish: dâhiliye (tr) Ottoman Turkish: ایچ (iç), داخل (dâhil)

the set of all interior points

German: Inneres (de) n, offener Kern m Hebrew: פנים (he) m (pním) Icelandic: innri kjarni m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Interlingua: (please verify) interior Spanish: (please verify) interior (es) m

Further reading

• interior (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• tire iron

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior (the inside of an enclosed structure)

   Antonym: exterior

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin interiōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [in.tə.ɾiˈur]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [in.tə.ɾiˈo]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [in.tə.ɾiˈor]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [in.te.ɾiˈoɾ]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [in.te.ɾiˈor]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

interior m or f (masculine and feminine plural interiors)

1. interior, inner, internal

   Antonym: exterior

Noun

interior m (plural interiors)

1. interior, inside

   Antonym: exterior

Noun

interior m or f by sense (plural interiors)

1. (baseball) infielder

   Coordinate term: exterior

2. (field hockey or ice hockey) inside

Further reading

• “interior”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “interior”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “interior” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “interior”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)
• “interior” in termcat, Centre de Terminologia, 2026.
• “interior” in termcat, Centre de Terminologia, 2026.

Galician

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Adjective

interior m or f (plural interiores)

1. inner, interior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior

Antonyms

• exterior

Latin

Etymology

From earlier *interus (whence also intrā and interulus), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁énteros (“inner, what is inside”). Cognates include Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “interior”) and Ancient Greek ἔντερον (énteron, “intestine, bowel”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɪnˈtɛ.ri.ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [inˈtɛː.ri.or]

Adjective

interior (comparative, neuter interius, no positive form, superlative intimus or intumus, adverb interius); third declension

1. comparative degree of inter
   1. inner, interior
   2. nearer
   3. more secret, unknown
      • 4th century–c. 330 CE, Arnobius, Adverus Nationes 7.19.1–2:

        nam dis feminis feminas, mares maribus hostias immolare abstrusa et interior ratio est

        for in sacrificing female victims to female gods and male victims to male gods, the reason is hidden and unknown

Usage notes

• Although interior is the comparative form of inter morphologically, there is no attested positive form, as inter is only used as a preposition and adverb, not as an adjective.

Declension

Third-declension comparative adjective.

	singular		plural
	masc./fem.	neuter	masc./fem.	neuter
nominative	interior	interius	interiōrēs	interiōra
genitive	interiōris	interiōrum
dative	interiōrī	interiōribus
accusative	interiōrem	interius	interiōrēs interiōrīs	interiōra
ablative	interiōre interiōrī	interiōribus
vocative	interior	interius	interiōrēs	interiōra

Descendants

• → Asturian: interior
• → Catalan: interior
• → English: interior, interiour
• → French: intérieur (see there for further descendants)
• → Galician: interior
• → Italian: interiore
• → Occitan: interior
• → Portuguese: interior
• → Romanian: interior
• → Spanish: interior

References

• “interior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “interior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “interior”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the interior of Asia: interior Asia; interiora Asiae
    
  • profound scientific education: litterae interiores et reconditae, artes reconditae
    
• Walde, Alois; Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938), “interior”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume I, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 710

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin interiōrem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoʁ/ [ĩ.te.ɾiˈoh], /ĩ.teˈɾjoʁ/ [ĩ.teˈɾjoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoʁ/ [ĩ.te.ɾiˈoh], /ĩ.teˈɾjoʁ/ [ĩ.teˈɾjoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoɾ/, /ĩ.teˈɾjoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoʁ/ [ĩ.te.ɾiˈoχ], /ĩ.teˈɾjoʁ/ [ĩ.teˈɾjoχ]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /ĩ.te.ɾiˈoɻ/, /ĩ.teˈɾjoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ĩ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with elision) /ĩ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with elision) /ĩˈtɾjoɾ/, /ẽ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with elision) /ẽ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with elision) /ẽˈtɾjoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ĩ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with elision) /ĩ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with elision) /ĩˈtɾjoɾ/, /ẽ.tɨˈɾjoɾ/, (with elision) /ẽ.tɾiˈoɾ/, (with elision) /ẽˈtɾjoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ĩ.tɨˈɾjo.ɾi/, (with elision) /ĩ.tɾiˈo.ɾi/, (with elision) /ĩˈtɾjo.ɾi/, /ẽ.tɨˈɾjo.ɾi/, (with elision) /ẽ.tɾiˈo.ɾi/, (with elision) /ẽˈtɾjo.ɾi/

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧te‧ri‧or

Adjective

interior m or f (plural interiores)

1. inner; interior (located in the inside)

   Antonym: exterior

   Não comemos os olhos nem os órgãos interiores.

   We don’t eat the eyes nor the inner organs.

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior; inside

   Antonym: exterior

   Tirei uma bola do interior da caixa.

   I took out a ball from the interior of the box.

2. country; countryside; interior (regions outside major cities)

   Synonym: campo

   Antonym: cidade

   Esses fazendeiros moraram sempre no interior.

   Those farmers have always lived in the country.

Usage notes

Generally speaking, any part of a Brazilian state that is not in or near its capital or coast is the state's interior. Alternatively, people from smaller cities tend to consider only smaller towns interior, those from small villages tend to consider only places without any collective settlement interior, and so on.

Further reading

• “interior”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French intérieur.

Noun

interior n (plural interiori)

1. interior

Declension

	singular	plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	interior	interiorul	interiori	interiorile
genitive-dative	interior	interiorului	interiori	interiorilor
vocative	interiorule	interiorilor

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inteˈɾjoɾ/ [ĩn̪.t̪eˈɾjoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: in‧te‧rior

Adjective

interior m or f (masculine and feminine plural interiores)

1. inner, interior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior
2. (Venezuela, also used in the plural) male underwear, underpants

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

• camiseta interior
• interior de la República
• interiormente
• lucha interior
• producto bruto interno
• producto interior bruto
• ropa interior

Related terms

• interioridad
• interiorizar
• interno

Further reading

• “interior”, 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