interfere

See also: interféré and interfère

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Old French entreferir, from entre- + ferir (“to hit, to strike”), itself from the Latin verb ferio.

Pronunciation
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌɪntɚˈfɪɹ/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɪntəˈfɪə/
  • Hyphenation: in‧ter‧fere
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪə(r)

Verb

interfere (third-person singular simple present interferes, present participle interfering, simple past and past participle interfered)

  1. (intransitive) To get involved or involve oneself, causing disturbance.
    I always try not to interfere with other people’s personal affairs.
  2. (intransitive, physics) (of waves) To be correlated with each other when overlapped or superposed.
    Correlated waves interfere to produce interesting patterns, while uncorrelated waves overlap without interfering.
    Where the radio-wave signals of the two radio stations interfere the listener hears nothing but noise.
  3. (mostly of horses) To strike one foot against the opposite foot or ankle in using the legs.
  4. (intransitive, followed by "with") To sexually molest, especially of a child.
    The investigation found the boys had been interfered with.

Derived terms

Translations
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Translations to be checked

See also

Further reading

Latin

Verb

interfēre

  1. second-person singular present active subjunctive of interfor

Portuguese

Verb

interfere

  1. third-person singular present indicative of interferir
  2. second-person singular imperative of interferir
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