intrusive
Americanadjective
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tending or apt to intrude; coming without invitation or welcome.
intrusive memories of a lost love.
- Synonyms:
- disturbing, irritating, troublesome, worrisome, irksome, bothersome, annoying
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characterized by or involving intrusion.
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intruding; thrusting in.
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Geology.
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(of a rock) having been forced between preexisting rocks or rock layers while in a molten or plastic condition.
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noting or pertaining to plutonic rocks.
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Phonetics. excrescent.
adjective
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characterized by intrusion or tending to intrude
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(of igneous rocks) formed by intrusion Compare extrusive
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phonetics relating to or denoting a speech sound that is introduced into a word or piece of connected speech for a phonetic rather than a historical or grammatical reason, such as the (r) often pronounced between idea and of in the idea of it
Other Word Forms
- intrusively adverb
- intrusiveness noun
- nonintrusive adjective
- nonintrusively adverb
- unintrusive adjective
- unintrusively adverb
Etymology
Origin of intrusive
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; intrusion, -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"He asked for my mobile phone and checked everything, even my photographs. It was extremely intrusive," she added.
From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026
Classifying a patient as cured also allows them to avoid intrusive, and sometimes painful, screening tests, like bone marrow biopsies.
From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026
Just as complaints about AI being annoyingly intrusive in marketing and advertising are real.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026
Some men prefer to talk to someone they think will viscerally understand what they’re grappling with, whether it’s bullying, sexual issues, intrusive thoughts, masculinity, fatherhood, divorce or job loss.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
Cecilia’s enthusiasm, for example, seemed a little overstated, tainted with condescension perhaps, and intrusive too; her big sister wanted each bound story catalogued and placed on the library shelves, between Rabindranath Tagore and Quintus Tertullian.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
