interfere

See also: interféré and interfère

English

Alternative forms

• enterfere (obsolete)

Etymology

From 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)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧ter‧fere
• 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.

   • 1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Notes.] The Axe-helve.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 37:

     I’ve known ere now an interfering branch / Of alder catch my lifted axe behind me. / But that was in the woods, to hold my hand / From striking at another alder’s roots, / And that was, as I say, an alder branch.

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
• small interfering RNA

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:

  Hokkien: 阻礙／阻碍 (zh-min-nan), 阻礙／阻碍 (zh-min-nan) (chó͘-gāi)

  Mandarin: 妨礙／妨碍 (zh) (fáng'ài), 阻礙／阻碍 (zh) (zǔ'ài), 干擾 (zh) (gānrǎo), 插手 (zh) (chāshǒu), 干預 (zh) (gānyù)

• Czech: vměšovat se impf, vmísit se pf
• Farefare: dãampuuge
• Finnish: sekaantua (fi), sotkeutua (fi)
• French: se mêler (de) (fr), entraver (fr), perturber (fr)
• Galician: entremeter, interferir
• 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
• Ottoman Turkish: پرمقلمق (parmaklamak), یاپشمق (yapışmak)
• 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 (ʕāqa), عَرْقَلَ (ʕarqala)
• 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)
• 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

Galician

Verb

interfere

1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of interferir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Latin

Verb

interfēre

1. second-person singular present active subjunctive of interfor

Portuguese

Verb

interfere

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