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Glite Dictionary
to interpellate

to interpellate

9.9
Formally question a government official about their policies or actions
  • verb
  • /ˌɪntərˈpɛleɪt/
  • Formal
translation icon : interpelar
  • During the parliamentary session, several members interpellated the Prime Minister about health care reforms.

Examples

  • The committee decided to interpellate the minister regarding the recent changes in policy.

  • Opposition leaders aimed to interpellate the government over its handling of environmental issues.

  • Impuesto's aim is to ethically interpellate and fracture history and answer these questions.

    Academic text (2017)

  • I want to suggest that this work once again interpellates a specific kind of viewer: that segment of the white population plagued by guilt.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Moreover, Haitians in the United States have long been interpellated by influential organizations in their homeland as the "Tenth Department."

    Academic text (2003)

  • Haitians respond to their marginality through discourses of group identity which comment upon, resist, but also accommodate the ways they are interpellated.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The French administrative apparatus in Guadeloupe interpellates Haitian migrants as disposable non-citizens who deserve neither a future nor a comfortable present on the island.

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

to interrogate
vsto interpellate
  • Formal
142 6.5

To question someone carefully and formally to get information

is used to formally question government members about policy or official actions

How Forceful

to interrogate
  • Formal
142 6.5
to interpellate
  • Formal
9.9
to press
285 3.9
to question
777 3.5
to ask
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

interpellate infinitive
interpellated past
interpellated past participle
interpellating present participle
interpellates third person singular

Morphology

interpellate = pell (opaque) = inter + pell + ate

The root 'pell' is not a standalone English word and the specific meaning of formal questioning is not directly derivable from the components.

Etymology

Interpellate comes from Latin parts inter- meaning 'between' and pellare meaning 'to drive', and you see the same root in English words like compel and propel. So the old idea of 'putting something between' turned into 'interrupting', and today to interpellate a minister is to formally interrupt and question them about policy.