Other forms: interferences
Interference is unwanted involvement in something that is not your business. Political interference, resent the interference, without interference.
It is always unwelcome, which is what separates it from help. In radio and electronics, interference is noise spoiling a signal: radio interference, interference on the line. In physics, interference is what happens when two waves meet and add or cancel, which is a neutral technical term. Note interfere with, which in legal and news writing is also a euphemism for sexual assault, so the verb needs care.
1noununwantedUnwanted involvement in something.
“They resented the interference and said so at length.”
2nouninterferenceNoise spoiling a signal.
“There is interference on that frequency every afternoon.”
interference is an unwanted involvement.
Latin inter, between, plus ferire, to strike — striking between. Interference is literally getting in between two things, which describes the physics and the meddling equally well.
Old French
entreferir
English
interfere
English, today
interference
Built from
From interfere + -ence. The sense in physics was likely introduced by coined by Q25820, which he used as early as 1801 in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. interfere comes from Old French entreferir, from entre- + ferir (“to hit, to strike”), itself from the Latin - verb ferio.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA