The Collaborative International Dictionary
Intermediate \In`ter*me"di*ate\, a. [Pref. inter- + mediate: cf. F. interm['e]diat.]
Lying or being in the middle place or degree, or between two extremes; coming or done between; intervening; interposed; interjacent; as, an intermediate space or time; intermediate colors.
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Hence: Of or pertaining to an intermediate school; as, intermediate education.
Intermediate state (Theol.), the state or condition of the soul between the death and the resurrection of the body.
Intermediate terms (Math.), the terms of a progression or series between the first and the last (which are called the extremes); the means.
Intermediate tie. (Arch.) Same as Intertie.
Usage examples of "intermediate terms".
I think it far more likely, especially in view of the fact that the persons concerned were highly educated, that we are concerned with telescoped processes, in which habit has caused a great many intermediate terms to be elided or to be passed over so quickly as to escape observation.
What I mean is something else - the intermediate terms, they might be called.