intrusive
intrusive — adjective
1. An intrusive person, question, or activity enters your private life or personal
An intrusive person, question, or activity enters your private life or personal space without permission, often making you feel uncomfortable or bothered.
The reporter's questions about Tamar's divorce felt deeply intrusive.
collocation: deeply intrusive
Wren found her neighbour's constant watching through the window intrusive.
pattern: find something + intrusive
Imran tried to ignore the intrusive advertisements that kept appearing on his phone.
The security camera pointed directly into Putri's kitchen felt intrusive and unnecessary.
Gabriel told his colleague that her comments about his personal life were intrusive.
- invasive
stronger than 'intrusive', often implies active and harmful entry; used for medical procedures, species, or aggressive surveillance
- nosy
informal, specifically about curiosity in others' private matters; less strong than 'intrusive'
- prying
focuses on the act of trying to find out private information; often describes questions or looks
- respectful
shows proper regard for another person's privacy and boundaries
用法筆記
Frequently used with verbs like 'feel', 'find', and 'seem' to describe a person's subjective reaction to something.
常見錯誤
2. In geology, intrusive describes rock formed from magma that cooled and hardened
In geology, intrusive describes rock formed from magma that cooled and hardened beneath the earth's surface rather than on it.
The granite in this region is an intrusive rock that formed millions of years ago.
collocation: intrusive rock
Geologists can tell intrusive rock from extrusive rock by studying the crystal size.
contrast: intrusive vs extrusive
Minh examined the intrusive formation where magma had pushed between older layers of stone.
Intrusive igneous rocks often contain large crystals because they cooled very slowly underground.
- plutonic
a more technical synonym referring specifically to very deep underground formations
- extrusive
describes rock formed from lava that cooled on the earth's surface
用法筆記
This sense is attributive only — it appears before a noun (intrusive rock, intrusive magma) and is not used predicatively. The opposite geological term is 'extrusive'.
常見錯誤
3. In phonetics, a sound is described as intrusive when speakers add it between two
In phonetics, a sound is described as intrusive when speakers add it between two existing sounds to make pronunciation feel more natural.
Some British English speakers produce an intrusive 'r' between words like 'law' and 'and'.
example: intrusive 'r' in British English
Linguists study intrusive sounds to understand how people naturally make speech easier.
pattern: study intrusive sounds
The intrusive 't' in words like 'sense' is heard in casual speech in some dialects.
Hao naturally added an intrusive 'r' between 'saw' and 'it' to ease pronunciation.
- epenthetic
the formal linguistic term for an extra sound inserted into a word or between words
用法筆記
Often used before a specific sound symbol in single quotation marks (intrusive 'r', intrusive 't'). The most well-known example in English is intrusive 'r', common in non-rhotic British accents.