# interference

Pronunciation: US say "in-tur-FEER-ins" /ˌɪntəɹˈfɪɹɪns/; UK say "in-tuh-FEER-uhns" /ˌɪntə(ɹ)ˈfɪəɹəns/

## Noun

1. The act of interfering with a process or situation, or anything that gets in the way of it.
   - Simple: The act of getting in the way of something, or something that blocks it.
   - _Government interference in the market drove prices sharply higher._
   - _He resented his neighbor's interference in his family affairs._
2. Unwanted noise or distortion that atmospheric conditions or other causes introduce into a broadcast signal.
   - Simple: Unwanted noise that spoils a radio or TV signal.
   - _Atmospheric interference garbled the pilot's radio transmission._
   - _Nearby power lines caused interference on the broadcast._
3. In certain ball games, the act of illegally getting in an opponent's way.
   - Simple: When a player illegally blocks or gets in the way of an opponent in a ball game.
   - _The umpire ruled interference when the runner blocked the fielder._
   - _A flag was thrown for interference on the long pass._
4. In physics, the effect produced when two sets of waves overlap and combine.
   - Simple: The pattern made when two sets of waves meet and combine.
   - _The overlapping sound waves produced interference that canceled certain tones._
   - _Interference between the reflected beams created alternating light and dark fringes._
5. In chess, a tactic in which a piece is sacrificed by placing it on the line between an attacked piece and the piece defending it.
   - Simple: In chess, blocking the line between an attacking piece and its defender by putting a piece in the way.
   - _A timely interference severed the queen's protection of the threatened knight._
   - _Black sacrificed a pawn, and the interference left the rook undefended._
6. Using words or structures from one language inappropriately in another language that one also knows.
   - Simple: When someone who speaks two languages wrongly brings words or grammar from one into the other.
   - _Her writing showed interference from French in its sentence structure._
   - _Phonetic interference gave his English a noticeable accent._
7. Under United States patent law, a proceeding between parties to settle which of several competing patent applications has priority. *(US)*
   - Simple: In US patent law, a legal process that decides which inventor created an invention first.
   - _The patent office declared an interference between the rival applications._
   - _Their interference dragged on for years before priority was finally settled._

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/interference (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).