interchanged

Interchanged is the past tense and past participle of interchange, meaning to swap the positions, order, or components of two or more items. When something has been interchanged, it has been exchanged with another element rather than merely rearranged. The term is used across ordinary language and technical contexts to indicate an intentional exchange.

In everyday usage, interchanged describes swapped labels, components, or positions: for example, "the labels were interchanged," or "the parts were interchanged during assembly." In more formal or technical settings, it can refer to swapped inputs or roles, such as interchanged data fields or interchanged positions in an experiment, where the swap is deliberate to test effects or to balance systems.

Etymology traces interchanged to the prefix inter- meaning between and change, with the standard English suffix to form the past participle. The related noun is interchange, and the adjective interchangeable describes items that can be swapped or substituted; interchangeability denotes the quality of being suitable for such exchanges.

In usage beyond ordinary language, interchanged can be found in discussions of manufacturing, data processing, or experiment design, where swapping elements is a defined operation. Note that interchanged is distinct from interchange when used as a noun (a road junction) or from interchangeable, which emphasizes potential rather than an actual swap.