interfere

interfere

See also: interféré and interfère

English

Alternative forms

• enterfere (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪntɚˈfɪɹ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɪntəˈfɪə(ɹ)/
• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧fere

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

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 girls had been interfered with.

Derived terms

• interference

Translations

get involved, causing disturbance

Belarusian: мяша́ць impf (mjašácʹ), перашкаджа́ць impf (pjeraškadžácʹ), уме́швацца impf (umjéšvacca), умяша́цца pf (umjašácca) Bulgarian: наме́свам се (bg) impf (namésvam se), наме́ся се pf (namésja se) Chinese: Mandarin: 妨礙／妨碍 (zh) (fáng'ài), 阻礙／阻碍 (zh) (zǔ'ài), 干擾／干扰 (zh) (gānrǎo), 插手 (zh) (chāshǒu), 干預／干预 (zh) (gānyù) Min Nan: 阻礙 (zh-min-nan), 阻礙 (zh-min-nan) (chó͘-gāi) Czech: vměšovat se impf, vmísit se pf Finnish: sekaantua (fi), sotkeutua (fi) French: se mêler (de) (fr), entraver (fr), perturber (fr) German: eingreifen (de), sich einmischen (de), stören (de) Hungarian: beleavatkozik (hu) Italian: impicciarsi (it) (reflexive) Japanese: 妨げる (ja) (さまたげる, samatageru), 干渉する (ja) (かんしょうする, kanshō suru), おせっかいをする (o-sekkai o suru) Korean: 방해하다 (ko) (banghaehada), 간섭하다 (ko) (ganseophada) Latin: interveniō (la) Macedonian: се вмешува impf (se vmešuva), се вмеша pf (se vmeša) Maori: whawhe, raweke, auwaha, hūrau Polish: wtrącać się (pl) impf, wtrącić się (pl) pf Russian: меша́ть (ru) impf (mešátʹ), препя́тствовать (ru) impf (prepjátstvovatʹ), вме́шиваться (ru) impf (vméšivatʹsja), вмеша́ться (ru) pf (vmešátʹsja) Slovak: vmiešať sa pf Spanish: please add this translation if you can Swedish: involvera (sv), lägga sig i (sv) Ukrainian: міша́ти impf (mišáty), перешкоджа́ти impf (pereškodžáty), умі́шуватися impf (umíšuvatysja), уміша́тися pf (umišátysja)

be correlated with each other when overlapped or superposed

Bulgarian: интерфери́рам impf or pf (interferíram) Catalan: interferir (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Farefare: dãampuuge Finnish: interferoida (fi) French: interférer (fr) German: musterbildend gegenseitig beeinflussen (reflexive), kohärent überlagern (reflexive), interferieren (de) Russian: интерфери́ровать (ru) impf or pf (interferírovatʹ) Spanish: interferir (es)

strike one foot against the opposite foot or ankle in using the legs

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: hivuttaa Spanish: please add this translation if you can

sexually molest

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Finnish: häiritä (fi) Spanish: please add this translation if you can

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Arabic: عَاقَ‎ (ʿāqa), عَرْقَلَ‎ (ʿarqala) Catalan: destorbar (ca), dificultar (ca) Dutch: hinderen (nl) (hinder), moeilijk maken (nl) (make difficult) Estonian: takistama, pidurdama, tagasi hoidma Georgian: დაბრკოლება (dabrḳoleba), შეფერხება (šeperxeba) German: erschweren (de) Greek: παρεμποδίζω (el) (parempodízo) (parempodízo) Hungarian: meggátol (hu), megakadályoz (hu) Italian: impedire (it) Japanese: 妨げる (ja) (samatageru) Korean: 저지하다 (jeojihada) Latin: obstō (la), officiō Norwegian: Norwegian Bokmål: hemme Norwegian Nynorsk: hemme Polish: przeszkadzać (pl), powstrzymywać (pl) Romanian: împiedica (ro), stânjeni (ro) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: спречити, отежавати Roman: sprečiti (sh), otežavati (sh) Serbo-Croatian: spriječiti (sh), otežavati (sh) Spanish: impedir (es) Swahili: kinga (sw), kinza Swedish: hindra (sv), försvåra (sv) (to make difficult) Thai: กีดขวาง (th) (gìit-kwǎang), กีด (th) (gìit)

See also

• busy body
• interferometry

Further reading

• interference on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Latin

Verb

interfēre

1. second-person singular present active subjunctive of interfor

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Portuguese

Verb

interfere

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