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Interrupt vs Distract - What's the difference?

interrupt | distract |

As verbs the difference between interrupt and distract

is that interrupt is to disturb or halt an ongoing process or action by interfering suddenly while distract is to divert the attention of.

As a noun interrupt

is an event that causes a computer to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition.

As an adjective distract is

separated; drawn asunder.

interrupt

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To disturb or halt an ongoing process or action by interfering suddenly.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Do not interrupt me in my course.
  • * , chapter=3
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}
  • To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
    • The evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.
  • (computing) To assert to a computer that an exceptional condition must be handled.

    • Antonyms

    * continue * resume

    Related terms

    * interrupter * interruption

    Noun

    (wikipedia interrupt) (en noun)
  • (computing) An event that causes a computer to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition
    • The interrupt caused the packet handler routine to run.

    Derived terms

    * hardware interrupt * interrupt handler * non-maskable interrupt, NMI * software interrupt

    External links

    * * * English reporting verbs

    distract

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To divert the attention of.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=David Ornstein, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Arsenal 1-0 Everton , passage=While Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had warned his players against letting the pre-match festivities distract them from the task at hand, they clearly struggled for fluency early on.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Travels and travails , passage=Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.}}
    '

    Related terms

    * distracted * distractible * distracting * distraction

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Separated; drawn asunder.
  • (obsolete) Insane; mad.
    • (Drayton)