The following sentence has a word underlined. Read the sentence carefully and…

Concept

An interjection is a word or short expression that stands grammatically apart from the rest of the sentence and conveys a sudden emotion — joy, surprise, grief, approval. It is not the subject, verb, object or modifier of any clause; it is typically set off by an exclamation mark and could be removed without breaking the grammar of the remaining sentence.

Application

In this sentence the underlined word is "Hurrah", which is followed immediately by an exclamation mark: "Hurrah! What a scintillating beauty the landscape is!". It expresses a burst of joy and excitement and has no grammatical link to the clause "the landscape is" — remove it and "What a scintillating beauty the landscape is!" is still a complete, correct exclamatory sentence. A word that voices sudden emotion and stands apart in this way is an interjection.

Cross-check (why not the others)

• A conjunction joins words or clauses (and, but, because) — "Hurrah" connects nothing.

• An adjective describes a noun (here the describing word is "scintillating", which qualifies "beauty") — "Hurrah" describes no noun.

• An adverb modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb (how/when/where) — "Hurrah" modifies nothing.

Only "interjection" fits a stand-alone exclamation of emotion set off by an exclamation mark.