Interface

How to spell interface

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce interface

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interface mean?

1. nounA point or surface where two systems, devices, or programs meet and communicate.
2. verbTo connect with or interact with another system or person so they work together.

Interface in a sentence

• noun

  The new app has a clean interface that anyone can navigate.

• verb

  The billing software must interface smoothly with the bank's network.

• noun

  A faulty interface between the printer and the laptop stopped the job.

• verb

  Our team will interface directly with the client during the rollout.

Where does interface come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is a relatively modern compound, built from the Latin prefix inter-, meaning 'between' or 'among', joined to 'face', which traces back to the Latin facies, meaning 'form', 'appearance', or 'surface'. It was coined in the mid 1800s as a scientific term describing a surface that forms a shared boundary between two regions or substances, such as the boundary between a liquid and a gas. From physics and chemistry it spread into engineering, and in the twentieth century it was eagerly adopted by computing to describe the point where a person and a machine meet, and later the screen layout through which we control software. The verb sense, meaning to connect or interact, grew out of that technical noun and became common business jargon. Remembering that the second half is simply the ordinary word 'face' helps fix the spelling, since the trap is hearing the unstressed middle and dropping a letter.

How the word is built

• inter- (between)
• face (from Latin facies: form, surface, appearance)