intrusive

intrusive — adjective

1. An intrusive person, question, or activity enters your private life or personal

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

An intrusive person, question, or activity enters your private life or personal space without permission, often making you feel uncomfortable or bothered.

Example

The reporter's questions about Tamar's divorce felt deeply intrusive.

collocation: deeply intrusive

Wren found her neighbour's constant watching through the window intrusive.

pattern: find something + intrusive

Common collocations
  • intrusive questions
  • intrusive thoughts
  • intrusive behaviour
  • intrusive presence
  • deeply intrusive
  • highly intrusive
Synonyms
  • invasive

    stronger than 'intrusive', often implies active and harmful entry; used for medical procedures, species, or aggressive surveillance

  • nosy

    informal, specifically about curiosity in others' private matters; less strong than 'intrusive'

  • prying

    focuses on the act of trying to find out private information; often describes questions or looks

Antonyms
  • respectful

    shows proper regard for another person's privacy and boundaries

Usage Note

Frequently used with verbs like 'feel', 'find', and 'seem' to describe a person's subjective reaction to something.

Common Mistakes

I found the question very intrusive for me.
I found the question very intrusive.
'intrusive' already includes the idea of affecting someone; adding 'for me' is redundant.

2. In geology, intrusive describes rock formed from magma that cooled and hardened

2.adjectiveC1
Definition

In geology, intrusive describes rock formed from magma that cooled and hardened beneath the earth's surface rather than on it.

Example

The granite in this region is an intrusive rock that formed millions of years ago.

collocation: intrusive rock

Geologists can tell intrusive rock from extrusive rock by studying the crystal size.

contrast: intrusive vs extrusive

Common collocations
  • intrusive rock
  • intrusive formation
  • intrusive magma
  • intrusive igneous rock
Synonyms
  • plutonic

    a more technical synonym referring specifically to very deep underground formations

Antonyms
  • extrusive

    describes rock formed from lava that cooled on the earth's surface

Usage Note

This sense is attributive only — it appears before a noun (intrusive rock, intrusive magma) and is not used predicatively. The opposite geological term is 'extrusive'.

Common Mistakes

This rock looks intrusive.
This rock is an intrusive rock.
The geology sense is only used before a noun, not after a linking verb.

3. In phonetics, a sound is described as intrusive when speakers add it between two

3.adjectiveC2
Definition

In phonetics, a sound is described as intrusive when speakers add it between two existing sounds to make pronunciation feel more natural.

Example

Some British English speakers produce an intrusive 'r' between words like 'law' and 'and'.

example: intrusive 'r' in British English

Linguists study intrusive sounds to understand how people naturally make speech easier.

pattern: study intrusive sounds

Common collocations
  • intrusive 'r'
  • intrusive sound
  • intrusive glide
  • intrusive vowel
Synonyms
  • epenthetic

    the formal linguistic term for an extra sound inserted into a word or between words

Usage Note

Often used before a specific sound symbol in single quotation marks (intrusive 'r', intrusive 't'). The most well-known example in English is intrusive 'r', common in non-rhotic British accents.

Common Mistakes

The intrusive sound is a grammar mistake.
The intrusive sound is a natural phonetic feature, not a grammar error.
Learners sometimes confuse this with a correction; it is a descriptive observation, not a prescriptive error.

Word family

  • intrude
    verbB2
  • intrusion
    nounB2
  • intruder
    nounB2
  • intrusively
    adverbC1
  • intrusiveness
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

'Intrusive' describes anything that crosses the boundary of someone's private space or life, whether a question, a look, or a device. 'Invasive' is a stronger term that implies aggressive or harmful entry — invasive surgery, invasive species, or invasive surveillance programmes. 'Nosy' is informal and focuses on excessive curiosity about others' affairs ('a nosy neighbour'). 'Prying' is similar but often describes deliberate attempts to uncover secrets ('prying questions'). 'Meddlesome' adds the element of interfering to change or control what happens. A meddlesome relative does not just ask personal questions but also tries to influence your decisions. For everyday situations with low stakes, 'nosy' is natural; for serious privacy violations, 'intrusive' or 'invasive' better captures the gravity.

intrusive ↗invasive ↗nosy ↗pryingmeddlesome

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • intrusive into one's private life

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinEnglish

The word 'intrusive' comes from Latin 'intrudere', meaning 'to thrust in' (from 'in-' meaning 'in' and 'trudere' meaning 'to push'). The adjective form was built by adding '-ive' to the past participle stem 'intrus-', giving the idea of something that pushes itself into a place or situation where it does not belong.