interface

Etymology

From inter- (“between”) + face (“shape, figure, form”).

noun

1. The point of interconnection or contact 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; also the public or published sections of an object or module,
   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. (object-oriented programming) In some languages, a block of code declaring the interface (point of interconnection) between a class and code that interacts with it.
8. (biochemistry) The internal surface of a coiled protein (compare exoface).

verb

1. (transitive) To construct an interface for.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To connect through an interface.
3. (intransitive) To serve as an interface.
4. (business, intransitive) To meet for discussion.
   Let's interface on Wednesday.