interface

noun

in·ter·face | \ ˈin-tər-ˌfās

Definition of interface

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : a surface forming a common boundary of two bodies, spaces, or phases an oil-water interface

2a : the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other the man-machine interface

b : the means by which interaction or communication is achieved at an interface

interface

verb

interfaced; interfacing; interfaces

Definition of interface (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to connect by means of an interface interface a machine with a computer

2 : to serve as an interface for

intransitive verb

1 : to become interfaced

2 : to interact or coordinate harmoniously

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Examples of interface in a Sentence

Noun

the interface between engineering and science The software has a user interface that's easy to operate. We installed an interface between the computer and the typesetting machine.

Verb

interface a machine with a computer the point at which the two machines interface

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Less than a month ago, at Computex in Taipei, AMD announced that the X570 chipset and Ryzen 3800X would be the first to support PCI Express 4.0 and its 64GBps interface. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "The PCI Express 6.0 specification is announced and due to arrive in 2021, with products to follow," 18 June 2019 Hitting the Helm server with nmap directly on its LAN interface shows that in addition to the above, TCP ports 2377 and 7946 are open to LAN traffic. — Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, "Review: Helm Personal Server gets email self-hosting (almost) exactly right," 4 Dec. 2018 In its interface, the iPad Pro now more closely resembles new iPhones. — David Pierce, WSJ, "Apple’s New iPad Pro: Great Tablet, Still Can’t Replace Your Laptop," 5 Nov. 2018 Roman Banks, an app designer and developer who's worked on interfaces for platforms like WhatsApp, says darker themes can make certain designs pop or give users a way to customize their experience. — Arielle Pardes, WIRED, "Do You Really Need Dark Mode?," 8 June 2019 Three programs are available: 15-week software engineering classes, 15-week data science classes and a 24-week user interface design class. — Roland Li, SFChronicle.com, "WeWork to open SF coding school — with refunds if students don’t get jobs," 7 June 2019 Andrew Scott, recently great on Fleabag, is great again here as Chris, a mysterious rideshare driver stalking the London headquarters of a major social media company (whose user interface looks a lot like Twitter). — Darren Franich, EW.com, "Black Mirror season 5 stops worrying and learns to love technology: EW review," 5 June 2019 The Optane Memory M15 adds more performance and an overdue update to the x4 PCIe gen 3 interface. — Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld, "Intel's 2nd-gen Optane Memory M15 upgrades storage performance speeds," 29 May 2019 While complex military maneuvers might still require a standard graphics UI, Star Trek proves that the future of personal computing is all about voice user interface (VUI). — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, "Google Just Proved That Our Voice Is the Ultimate UI," 7 May 2019

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Smart city technologies, such as advanced traffic management systems that interface with autonomous vehicles, will likely be layered upon existing streets, Amici said. — Pam Baker, Ars Technica, "Where we’re going, we won’t need windows: How autonomy will change cars," 5 Dec. 2018 The bottom screen is the only way to interface with the climate-control system. — Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, "All SUV, all of the time: The Range Rover Sport reviewed," 12 July 2018 The goal here is to provide the locals a place to stock up without having to interface with the tourists padding around above. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "Two Very Big Reasons You Should Do Your Holiday Shopping in Midtown Manhattan," 20 Nov. 2018 And so Anikeeva became determined to design flexible fibers that could interface with the nervous system without damaging it, transmitting signals to reconnect nerves or stimulate neurons. — Jacqueline Detwiler, Popular Mechanics, "The Heroes of Science Who Are Unlocking the Brain," 3 Oct. 2018 Its ride-sharing platform could be used on its own or be tailored to interface with a partner, one person said. — Mark Bergen And Noah Buhayar, latimes.com, "GM puts pieces in place for self-driving taxis in San Francisco," 3 July 2018 From infancy, citizens live every moment of their waking lives with a heads-up display laid over their vision, offering information, data, and ways to remotely interface with the physical world. — Bryan Bishop, The Verge, "Netflix’s Anon is an augmented reality neo-noir nightmare," 4 May 2018 Autonomous-car industry analysts say the needs of disabled people are being discussed as designers figure out how users will interface with the cars, but there are many competing demands. — Jason Dearen, The Christian Science Monitor, "Researchers develop autonomous vehicles to help the blind," 13 Apr. 2018 Reservation, warranty, and warehousing systems had to interface with services running on mainframes, some running software that was decades old. — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, "The Dot-Coms Were Better Than Facebook," 13 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'interface.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near interface

Statistics for interface

Last Updated

26 Jun 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for interface

The first known use of interface was in 1882

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More Definitions for interface

interface

noun

English Language Learners Definition of interface

(Entry 1 of 2)

: the place or area at which different things meet and communicate with or affect each other

: a system that is used for operating a computer : a system that controls the way information is shown to a computer user and the way the user is able to work with the computer

: an area or system through which one machine is connected to another machine

interface

verb

English Language Learners Definition of interface (Entry 2 of 2)

: to connect or become connected : to connect by means of an interface

See the full definition for interface in the English Language Learners Dictionary

interface

noun

in·ter·face | \ ˈint-ər-ˌfās

Medical Definition of interface

: a surface forming a common boundary of two bodies, spaces, or phases interfaces between various tissues such as skin, fatty tissue, and muscle— H. P. Schwan

Other Words from interface

interface transitive verb interfaced; interfacing

interfacial \ ˌint-ər-ˈfā-shəl

\ adjective

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