Gets in the way of something; prevents or disrupts something from happening smoothly.
From Old French 'entreferer,' from Latin 'inter-' (between) plus 'ferire' (to strike). The word originally meant 'to strike together' and evolved to mean 'to get in the way' by the 1600s.
In physics and psychology, 'interference' is a real thing—two sound waves can actually cancel each other out through 'destructive interference,' or amplify each other through 'constructive interference,' which is how noise-cancelling headphones work!
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