Interfere

How to spell interfere

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce interfere

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interfere mean?

1. verbTo get involved in something without being asked, or to obstruct a process or activity.

Interfere in a sentence

• Managers should not interfere in decisions that belong to their staff.

• Loud noise from the street can interfere with your concentration.

Where does interfere come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word arrived in English in the 1400s from Old French entreferir, meaning to strike each other, which was used of horses that knocked one leg against another while moving. That French verb was built from the Latin pieces inter, meaning 'between' or 'among', and ferire, meaning 'to strike' or 'to hit'. So the literal idea was of two things colliding or knocking into one another, and from this physical sense the meaning gradually softened into the figurative notion of one thing getting in the way of another. By the 1500s and 1600s English speakers were using it for the modern senses of meddling in others' affairs and obstructing a process. The spelling trap lives in the ending: the Latin ferire gives the unexpected '-fere' (not '-fear' or '-feer'), even though the stressed sound is the same as in the word 'fear'.

How the word is built

• inter- (between)
• -fere (from Latin ferire: to strike)