Ĭn/ter-fĕr'ence, n.

n. [See supra.]

1. The act or state of interfering, intermeddling, or interposing; interposition.
2. The act of coming violently into contact; collision; clashing.
3. (Physics.) The mutual influence, under certain conditions, of two streams of light, or series of pulsations of sound, or, generally, two waves or vibrations of any kind, producing certain characteristic phenomena, as colored fringes, dark bands, or darkness, in the case of light, silence or increased intensity in sounds, and neutralization or superposition of waves generally.

☞ The term is most commonly applied to light, and the undulatory theory of light affords the proper explanation of the phenomena which are considered to be produced by the superposition of waves, and are thus substantially identical in their origin with those of the several cases of heat, sound, waves of water and the like.