interstitial

From Latin interstitiālis.[1] By surface analysis, interstitium +‎ -al.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪntəˈstɪʃəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪntəɹˈstɪʃəl/

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• Rhymes: -ɪʃəl

• Audio (Southern England)

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interstitial (not comparable)

1. Of, relating to, or situated in an interstice.
   • 1965, Jerome F. Fredrick, Murray L. Schole, Mechanisms of Dental Caries, page 761:

     The outer surface is covered with variable amounts of dental plaque and saliva. The inner surface is bathed in interstitial fluid or lymph.

   • 1999, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon:

     That he ran the risk of blowing out the stained-glass windows was of no consequence since no one liked them anyway, and the paper mill fumes were gnawing at the interstitial lead.

   • 2011, Chris Mulryan, Acute Illness Management, page 27:

     The interstitial fluid is located between cells and the capillaries. This fluid provides a bridge between the fluid in the intravascular compartment and the intracellular compartment. Chemicals in the blood must pass through the interstitial fluid if they are to reach cells.

   • 2014 August 23, Neil Hegarty, “Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney, review: 'a necessary corrective' [print version: Re-Joycing in Dublin, p. R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎:

     Whitney is absorbed especially by Dublin's unglamorous interstitial zones: the new housing estates and labyrinths of roads, watercourses and railways where the city peters into its commuter belt.

interstitial (plural interstitials)

1. (Internet, advertising) A web page, usually carrying advertising, displayed when leaving one content page for another.
   • 2007, Barbara Ballard, Designing the Mobile User Experience, page 126:

     Interstitials should be used sparingly. Display an ad only the first time the user accesses a piece of content, not every time.

2. (physics) An interstitial discontinuity in a crystal.
   • 2008, E. G. Seebauer et al., Defect Engineering for Ultrashallow Junctions using Surfaces, in P. J. Timans, E. P. Gusev, H. Iwai, D.-L. Kwong, M. C. Öztürk, F. Roozeboom (editors), Advanced Gate Stack, Source/Drain, and Channel Engineering for Si-Based CMOS 4: New Materials, Processes, and Equipment, ECS Transactions: Volume 13, Issue 1, page 56,

     The second mechanism, which is the primary focus of the present paper, involves insertion of interstitials into dangling bonds at the surface.