interference

UK: /ˌɪntə^rˈfɪərəns/ US: /ˌɪntɚˈfɪrəns/ ,(in′tər fēr′əns)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

in•ter•fer•ence /ˌɪntɚˈfɪrəns/   n. [uncountable]

1. an act or an instance of interfering:
   constant interference in trying to finish his work.
2. the mixed-up sounds or images resulting when a radio or television picks up unwanted signals:
   We could not watch Channel 5 last night; there was too much interference.

See -fer-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

in•ter•fer•ence  (in′tər fēr′əns), n. 

1. an act, fact, or instance of interfering.
2. something that interferes.
3. Physics the process in which two or more light, sound, or electromagnetic waves of the same frequency combine to reinforce or cancel each other, the amplitude of the resulting wave being equal to the sum of the amplitudes of the combining waves.
4. [Radio.]
   • Radio and Television a jumbling of radio signals, caused by the reception of undesired ones.
   • Radio and Television the signals or device producing the incoherence.
5. Sport [Football.]
   • the act of a teammate or of teammates running ahead of a ball-carrier and blocking prospective tacklers out of the way:
     to run interference for the halfback.
   • such a teammate or such teammates collectively:
     to follow one's interference.
   • the act of illegally hindering an opponent from catching a forward pass or a kick.
6. Aeronautics the situation that arises when the aerodynamic influence of one surface of an aircraft conflicts with the influence of another surface.
7. Linguistics
   • (in bilingualism and foreign-language learning) the overlapping of two languages.
   • deviation from the norm of either language in such a situation.
8. Linguistics, Psychology the distorting or inhibiting effect of previously learned behavior on subsequent learning.
9. Psychology the forgetting of information or an event due to inability to reconcile it with conflicting information obtained subsequently.
10. Idioms run interference, [Informal.] to deal with troublesome or time-consuming matters, as for a colleague or supervisor, esp. to forestall problems.

• interfere + -ence 1775–85

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

interference / ˌɪntəˈfɪərəns/ noun

1. the act or an instance of interfering
2. the process in which two or more coherent waves combine to form a resultant wave in which the displacement at any point is the vector sum of the displacements of the individual waves. If the individual waves converge the resultant is a system of fringes. Two waves of equal or nearly equal intensity moving in opposite directions combine to form a standing wave
3. Also called: radio interference any undesired signal that tends to interfere with the reception of radio waves

interferential / ˌɪntəfəˈrɛnʃəl/ adjective