interact definition

English

Etymology

inter- +‎ act

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪntəɹˈækt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækt

Verb

interact (third-person singular simple present interacts, present participle interacting, simple past and past participle interacted)

1. (intransitive) To act upon each other.
   1. (of people) To engage in communication and other shared activities (with someone).

      The way staff interact with each other during breaks can play an important role in the workplace.

   2. (of two or more things) To affect each other.

      This medication can interact with alcohol, so it's best to avoid drinking while you're taking it.

      • 1921, Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria, London: Collins, 1958, Chapter 3, p. 69,^[1]

        The fortunes of the master and the servant, intimately interacting, rose together. The Baron’s secret skill had given Leopold his unexceptionable kingdom; and Leopold, in his turn, as time went on, was able to furnish the Baron with more and more keys to more and more back doors.

      • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 3, pp. 31-32,^[2]

        It is now known that many pairs of organic phosphate insecticides are highly dangerous, the toxicity being stepped up or “potentiated” through the combined action. […] Residues well within the legally permissible limits may interact.

Translations

Noun

interact (plural interacts)

1. (dated) A short act or piece between others, as in a play; a break between acts.

   Synonyms: interlude, entracte, intermission

   • 1912, William Archer, London: Chapman & Hall, Chapter 8, pp. 108-109,^[3]

     […] the flight of time is best indicated by an interact. When the curtain is down, the action on the stage remains, as it were, in suspense. The audience lets its attention revert to the affairs of real life; and it is quite willing, when the mimic world is once more revealed, to suppose that any reasonable space of time has elapsed […]

   • 1980, Mary Chan, Music in the Theatre of Ben Jonson, Oxford: Clarendon, Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 15,^[4]

     The play gives detailed descriptions of the instruments used in the interact music […]

2. (obsolete) Intermediate employment or time.
   • 1750, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Letters Written […] to His Son, London: P. Dodsley, 10th edition, 1792, Volume 2, Letter 219, p. 344,^[5]

     Play, in good company, is only play, and not gaming; not deep, and consequently not dangerous nor dishonourable. It is only the inter-acts of other amusements.

3. (social sciences) A pair or series of acts involving more than one person.
   • 1975, Ralph Webb, Jr., Interpersonal Speech Communication: Principles and Practices, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Chapter 1, pp. 23-24,^[6]

     Inasmuch as it is impossible to analyze the contents of an entire interpersonal relationship, it is helpful to conceptualize a given communication event as consisting of a series of subevents. Any one subevent may be pulled out as a basic unit for analysis in the study of interpersonal communication; this basic unit may then be called an interact. […] each interact is a distinctive attempt to conceal, repeat, or disclose information and/or to influence the relationship.

   • 1991, Michael Z. Hackman and Craig E. Johnson, Leadership: A Communication Perspective, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Chapter 6, p. 123,^[7]

     As they listened to groups communicate, Fisher and his coworkers noted what each group member said (labeled a speech act) and how the next person responded. This pairing of speech acts is called an interact.

Translations

Related terms

• interactable
• interactant
• interactee
• interaction
• interactive
• interactome
• interactor