intersperse

From Latin interspersus.

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intersperse (third-person singular simple present intersperses, present participle interspersing, simple past and past participle interspersed)

1. To mix two things irregularly, placing things of one kind among things of other:
   • 1991, Frank Biocca, Television and Political Advertising: Signs, codes, and images, page 76:

     For example, a commercial sequence might intersperse pictures of a senator working in his office with shots of ordinary Americans happily working in various walks of life.

2. (transitive) To scatter or insert something into or among other things.
   • 1985, Jane Y. Murdock, Barbara V. Hartmann, Communication and language intervention program (CLIP) for individuals with moderate to severe handicaps, page 46:

     Review tasks are particularly useful to intersperse when students are experiencing considerable failure.

   • 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116:

     Goffin is a prose text interspersed with short lists of typical terms exemplifying certain sub-classes of Indian English lexis.

3. (transitive) To diversify by placing or inserting other things among something.

   • Mother Nature interspersed the petunias with a few dandelions, but it was a pretty garden, anyway.

• interspersed
• interspersion

• intersperse in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• intersperse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• enterprises, entreprises, serpentries