# intervention

Pronunciation: US say "in-tur-VEN-shuhn" /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/; UK say "in-tuh-VEN-shuhn" /ɪntəˈvɛnʃən/

## Noun

1. The act of stepping into a course of events to affect what happens, especially to stop or change it.
   - Simple: Stepping into a situation to change or stop what is happening.
   - _The dispute was settled only after the intervention of a neutral mediator._
   - _Government intervention in the housing market sparked fierce debate._
2. An organized effort by family and friends to persuade someone with an addiction or other serious psychological problem to seek professional treatment.
   - Simple: A planned meeting where family and friends ask someone to get help for an addiction.
   - _His colleagues organized an intervention when his drinking began to affect his work._
   - _The intervention was emotional, but it convinced her to enter treatment._
3. A treatment, procedure, or other action carried out to improve a patient's health or change a clinical outcome.
   - Simple: A medical treatment or procedure done to help a patient.
   - _Clinicians compared the new drug intervention against standard care._
   - _The trial measured how each intervention affected recovery time._
4. A legal motion by which someone not originally named in a lawsuit asks the court to make them a party to it. *(US)*
   - Simple: A legal request to join a court case that you were not first part of.
   - _The neighboring landowner sought intervention in the dispute over water rights._
   - _The court granted the union's intervention in the contract case._

## Origin

Borrowed from Middle French "intervention", from Latin "interventiō". It can also be analyzed as "intervene" plus the suffix "-tion".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/intervention (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).