interference
Pluralinterferences (some meanings)
- 1The act of interfering with a process or situation, or anything that gets in the way of it.
Government interference in the market drove prices sharply higher.
He resented his neighbor's interference in his family affairs.
Similarmeddling, intervention, intrusion, obstruction, involvement
- 2Unwanted noise or distortion that atmospheric conditions or other causes introduce into a broadcast signal.
Atmospheric interference garbled the pilot's radio transmission.
Nearby power lines caused interference on the broadcast.
Similarstatic, noise, distortion
- 3In certain ball games, the act of illegally getting in an opponent's way.
The umpire ruled interference when the runner blocked the fielder.
A flag was thrown for interference on the long pass.
Note
A referee's word: in sport, interference is something an official calls, and it costs the offending side, as in a fifteen-yard penalty for interference. It names a foul rather than a nuisance, so it travels with the verbs of officiating: an umpire rules interference, a flag is thrown for it. That separates it from the everyday sense, where interference is something people resent rather than something an official penalizes.
- 4In physics, the effect produced when two sets of waves overlap and combine.
The overlapping sound waves produced interference that canceled certain tones.
Interference between the reflected beams created alternating light and dark fringes.
Note
The physicist's sense has a likely origin: the English polymath Thomas Young used it as early as 1801, in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Where waves overlap they reinforce each other in some places and cancel in others, which physicists distinguish as constructive and destructive interference. Alternating light and dark fringes from overlapping beams are its classic visible signature.
- 5In chess, a tactic in which a piece is sacrificed by placing it on the line between an attacked piece and the piece defending it.
A timely interference severed the queen's protection of the threatened knight.
Black sacrificed a pawn, and the interference left the rook undefended.
Note
A tactical motif in chess, where what matters is the line itself, not the piece dropped onto it. Once the defensive line is cut, the attacked unit can be captured or a separate threat carried out. That payoff is why the interposing piece is willingly given up: its loss buys the win of something more valuable.
- 6Using words or structures from one language inappropriately in another language that one also knows.
Her writing showed interference from French in its sentence structure.
Phonetic interference gave his English a noticeable accent.
Similartransfer
Note
Linguists use the word for errors that can be traced to another language: a borrowed word, a foreign sentence pattern, a carried-over sound. It is usually named by its origin, as in interference from French, and narrowed by level, as in phonetic or syntactic interference. It works as a mass noun or a count noun, so a writer can discuss interference in general or list particular interferences.
- 7Under United States patent law, a proceeding between parties to settle which of several competing patent applications has priority.
The patent office declared an interference between the rival applications.
Their interference dragged on for years before priority was finally settled.
Note
A term of art in United States patent practice, also called a priority contest. The proceeding is inter partes, fought out between the competing applicants themselves, and the patent office is said to declare an interference. A patent lawyer's interference is a case to be decided, not meddling to be resented, and the meaning belongs to this American legal setting alone.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "interfere" and the suffix "-ence." The sense used in physics was likely introduced by the English polymath Thomas Young, who used it as early as 1801 in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.