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insignia. (Sing. and pl.) Historically, insigne is the correct singular, but almost no authority insists on it now.

in situ. (Lat.) “In place.”

insofar. (One word.)

insouciance, insouciant. Lack of concern, carefree.

install, installment.

instantaneous.

instill.

Institut de France. Not -tute. Umbrella organization for the five French academies: Académie des Beaux-Arts, Académie Française, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Académie des Sciences, and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

insuperable.

insuppressible.

insurer. Not -or.

intelligentsia. The intellectual elite of a society.

intelligible.

in tenebris. (Lat.) “In the dark,” in doubt.

intense, intensive. Intense should describe things that are heavy or extreme or occur to a high degree (“intense sunlight,” “intense downpour”). Intensive implies a concentrated focus (“intensive care,” “an intensive search”). Although the two words often come to the same thing, they needn’t. An intense bombardment, as Fowler pointed out, is a severe one. An intensive bombardment is one directed at a small (or relatively small) area.

inter alia. (Lat.) “Among other things.”

intermezzo. In music, a short piece between longer ones; pl. intermezzi/intermezzos.

interminable.

International Atomic Energy Agency. Not Authority.

international courts. Understandably, these sometimes cause confusion. The International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, is an offspring of the United Nations and deals with disputes between or among UN member states. The European Court of Justice, in Luxembourg, is a European Union institution dealing exclusively with disputes involving EU member states. The European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, France, addresses issues of civil liberties arising from the European Convention on Human Rights. It has no connection with the United Nations or European Union.

International Olympic Committee. Not Olympics.

internecine. For more than two hundred years writers have used internecine in the sense of a costly or self-destructive conflict, even though etymologically the word signifies only a slaughter or massacre without any explicit sense of cost to the victor. It has been misused for so long that it would be pedantic and wildly optimistic to try to enforce its original meaning, but it should at least be reserved for bloody and violent disputes and not mere squabblings.

interpolate. To insert.

interregnum. Period between reigns; pl. interregnums.

interrelated. Note -rr-.

in toto. (Lat.) “In total.”

intransitive verbs are those that do not require a direct object, as with sleep in the sentence “He sleeps all night.”

intrauterine device.

intra vires. (Lat.) “Within one’s powers.”

intrigue. Originally intrigue signified underhanded plotting and nothing else. The looser meaning of arousing or fascinating (“We found the lecture intriguing”) is now established. It is, however, greatly overworked and almost always better replaced by a more telling word.

in utero. (Lat.) “In the uterus.”

in vacuo. (Lat.) “In a vacuum.”

invariably does not mean frequently or usually. It means fixed, constant, not subject to change—in short, without variance.

inveigh, inveigle. Occasionally confused. The first means to speak strongly against (“He inveighed against the rise in taxes”). The second means to entice or cajole (“They inveigled an invitation to the party”).

invidious, insidious. Invidious means unfair or likely to cause offense; insidious describes the stealthy spread of something undesirable.

in vino veritas. (Lat.) “In wine there is truth.”

in vitro. (Lat.) Literally “in glass,” i.e., in a test tube, as with in vitro fertilization.

in vivo. (Lat.) “In a living organism.”

ipissima verba. (Lat.) “The very words.”

IPO. Short for initial public offering, the term for stock issued on a company’s market debut.

ipso facto. (Lat.) “By the very fact.”

IQ. Intelligence quotient.

Iraqi, Iraqis.