English

Noun

interface ‎(plural interfaces)

1. The point of interconnection between entities.

   Public relations firms often serve as the interface between a company and the press.

2. (chemistry, physics) A thin layer or boundary between different substances or two phases of a single substance.

   If water and oil are mixed together, they tend to separate, and at equilibrium they are in different strata with an oil-water interface in between.

   The surface of a lake is a water-air interface.

3. (computing) The point of interconnection between systems or subsystems.

   The data is sent over the air interface to the remote system.

4. (computing) The connection between a user and a machine.

   The options are selected via the user interface.

5. (computing, object-oriented programming) The connection between parts of software.

   This interface is implemented by several Java classes.

   Traits are somewhat between an interface and a mixin, as an interface contains only method signatures, while a trait includes also the full method definitions; on the other side mixins include method definitions, but they can also carry state through attributes, while traits usually don't.

6. (computing, object-oriented programming) In object-oriented programming, a piece of code defining a set of operations that other code must implement.

   The Audio and Video classes both implement the IPlayable interface.

7. (biochemistry) The internal surface of a coiled protein (compare exoface)

Hyponyms

Related terms

• mixin
• trait

Translations

Verb

interface ‎(third-person singular simple present interfaces, present participle interfacing, simple past and past participle interfaced)

1. (transitive) to construct an interface for, to connect through an interface
2. (intransitive) to be an interface, to be into an interface

Translations

French

Pronunciation

Noun

interface f ‎(plural interfaces)

1. interface
2. (object-oriented programming) interface

Verb

interface

1. first-person singular present indicative of interfacer
2. third-person singular present indicative of interfacer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of interfacer
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of interfacer
5. second-person singular imperative of interfacer

Portuguese

Noun

interface f (plural interfaces)

1. interface (point of interconnection between entities)
2. (computing) interface (point of interconnection between systems or subsystems)
3. (computing) interface (connection between a user and a machine)
4. (object-oriented programming) interface (piece of code defining a set of operations that other code must implement)

Quotations

For usage examples of this term, see Citations:interface.