different between bowels vs interior

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ba?.?lz/
• Rhymes: -a??lz

Noun

bowels

1. plural of bowel

Noun

bowels pl (plural only)

1. The deepest or innermost part.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act III, Scene 4,^[1]

     O momentary grace of mortal men,

     Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!

     Who builds his hopes in air of your good looks,

     Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,

     Ready, with every nod, to tumble down

     Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume I, Book 5, Chapter 12, p. 264,^[2]

     Here we cannot suppress a pious Wish, that all Quarrels were to be decided by those Weapons only, with which Nature, knowing what is proper for us, hath supplied us; and that cold Iron was to be used in digging no Bowels, but those of the Earth.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 98,^[3]

     At length, when the last pint is casked, and all is cool, then the great hatchways are unsealed, the bowels of the ship are thrown open, and down go the casks to their final rest in the sea.

   • 1922, D. H. Lawrence, Aaron’s Rod, London: Martin Secker, Chapter 6, p. 69,^[4]

     The station was half deserted, half rowdy, several fellows were drunk, shouting and crowing. Down there in the bowels of London, after midnight, everything seemed horrible and unnatural.

2. The concept or quality that defines something at its very core.

3. The intestines.
4. Compassion, sympathy.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act II, Scene 4,^[5]

     Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,

     In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,

     That, if requiring fail, he will compel;

     And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,

     Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy

     On the poor souls for whom this hungry war

     Opens his vasty jaws

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Philippians 2:1-2,^[6]

     If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

   • 1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Act II, Scene 9,^[7]

     Have you no Bowels, no Tenderness, my dear Lucy, to see a Husband in these Circumstances?

   • 1930, Mary Gaunt, Joan of the Pilchard, Chapter 15,^[8]

     ‘If I gave in to you, Reynell,’ said Bligh quietly, so quietly they could not tell whether he felt any pity for the boy or not, ‘the same plea could be put forth by sixteen others in less than half an hour,’ and he dropped his chin on his breast again as if there the discussion ended.

     ‘I told you he had no bowels,’ said Ledward.

5. (obsolete) The body as the source of offspring.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 2 Samuel 16:11,^[9]

     And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it?

   • 1751, Thomas Skinner, “A Sermon preach’d at the Ma’nor of Peace, in the County of Hampshire, on May the 9th, 1751” in Alfred Baylies Page, Reverend Grindall Rawson and his Ministry, 1907, p. 9,^[10]

     Had you been their natural Parents, and they the Children of your own Bowels, Methinks, you could not have Contributed much more Bountifully to their Assistance […]

   • 1845, Robert Browning, “The Bishop Orders his Tomb at St. Praxed’s Church” in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, lines 63-64,^[11]

     What do they whisper thee,

     Child of my bowels, Anselm?

Synonyms

• (deepest or innermost part): centre/center, core, heart
• (intestines): entrails, guts, intestines

Derived terms

• bowelless (obsolete)
• move one's bowels

Translations

Anagrams

• Belows, Blowes, Bowles, Lebows, blowes, blowse, bowles, elbows

English

Alternative forms

• interiour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin interior (“inner, interior”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?t??i?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?t???i??/
• Rhymes: -???i?(?)

Adjective

interior (not comparable)

1. Within any limits, enclosure, or substance; inside; internal; inner.

2. Remote from the limits, frontier, or shore; inland.

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

• interior decoration
• interior design
• interior designer

Translations

Noun

interior (plural interiors)

1. The inside of a building, container, cavern, or other enclosed structure.

2. The inside regions of a country, distanced from the borders or coasts.

3. (mathematics, topology) The set of all interior points of a set.

Antonyms

• exterior

Translations

Anagrams

• tire iron

Asturian

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior (the inside of an enclosed structure)

Catalan

Adjective

interior (feminine interiora, masculine plural interiors, feminine plural interiores)

1. interior, inner, internal

Noun

interior m (plural interiors)

1. interior, inside

Galician

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Adjective

interior m or f (plural interiores)

1. inner, interior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior

Antonyms

• exterior

Latin

Etymology

From the earlier *interus (whence also intr?), from the Proto-Indo-European *h?énteros (“inner, what is inside”). Cognates include the Sanskrit ????? (ántara, “interior”) and the Ancient Greek ??????? (énteron, “intestine, bowel”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /in?te.ri.or/, [?n??t???i?r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /in?te.ri.or/, [in??t????i?r]

Adjective

interior (neuter interius, positive inter); third declension

1. inner, interior
2. nearer

Usage notes

Although this adjective is the comparative form of inter, there is no positive form. The word inter is an adverb and preposition, not an adjective.

Declension

Third-declension comparative adjective.

Descendants

References

• interior in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• interior in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• interior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /?.t?.?i.?o?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?.?te.?i.?o?/, /??.te.??jo?/
• Hyphenation: in?te?ri?or

Adjective

interior (plural interiores, comparable)

1. inner; interior (located in the inside)

Antonyms

• (inner): exterior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior; inside

2. country; countryside; interior (regions outside major cities)

   Synonym: campo

Usage notes

The sense of countryside is very subjective. People from the Brazilian state capitals tend to consider the rest of the state interior, people from smaller cities tend to consider only smaller towns interior, those from small villages tend to consider only places without any collective settlement interior, and so on.

Antonyms

• (inside): exterior
• (countryside): cidade

Romanian

Etymology

From French intérieur

Noun

interior n (plural interiori)

1. interior

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin interior.

Adjective

interior (plural interiores)

1. inner, interior

Noun

interior m (plural interiores)

1. interior
2. (Venezuela, also used in the plural) male underwear, underpants

Antonyms

• exterior

Derived terms

Related terms

• interioridad
• interiorizar
• interno

Further reading

“interior” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.