interact
Americanverb (used without object)
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to act one upon another.
A person's microbiome and immune system may interact in ways that promote inflammation.
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to communicate, work, or participate in an activity with someone or something: a user interacting with a computer program.
a boss who seldom interacts with employees;
a user interacting with a computer program.
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
interactsimple
-
interactssimple
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have interactedperfect
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has interactedperfect
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am interactingprogressive
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are interactingprogressive
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is interactingprogressive
-
have been interactingperfect progressive
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has been interactingperfect progressive
Past
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interactedsimple
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had interactedperfect
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was interactingprogressive
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were interactingprogressive
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had been interactingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of interact
Explanation
Talking, dancing, playing a game — all of these activities allow you to interact with other people. To interact means to communicate and react to the people you're involved with. Some video games are called interactive because they are not static, like board games, but allow players to interact with them and direct the story. If you are talking about chemicals or medicines that interact, the presence of one affects the way the other works. If someone says that you interact well with children, it means you communicate well with them and they respond to you.
Vocabulary lists containing interact
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Ecology - Introductory
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Ecology - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The future of one of England's most unique habitats could rest with play areas designed for children to interact with the rare environment, a science centre hopes.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
When these matching antennas are placed close together, they interact very strongly.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
When these sulfide minerals interact with oxygen-rich surface waters, they turn it acidic.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Chiroptical methods examine how molecules interact with polarized light.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
Those are your abilities to predict, to decide, and to interact socially.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
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To address those problems, it separated the model, or reasoning layer, from the action layer that interacts with tools, and that required managing which tools the model was authorized to use.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Instead, the AI acts similarly to other chatbots and only interacts with Apple’s own products.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
Early readings from the spacecraft's magnetometers may have detected Mars' bow shock, the region where the solar wind interacts with the planet's magnetic environment.
From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026
Each employee interacts with each of nine prospective job applicants at a professional event, and later makes referrals based on the social connections they form.
From Slate ● May 22, 2026
The analysis of the something census and how the something interacts with something as it pertains to something it was.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
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The findings challenge traditional ideas about how humans and wolves interacted in prehistory.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Zeiter said the company wanted to create a space where humans interacted more with each other than AI bots, and under European control.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
That ethos of care extended beyond their interactions with the audience and into the way they interacted with one another offstage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
It also radically changed how the office operated, according to interviews with more than a dozen people who worked there or interacted with it from the private sector or other parts of the government.
From Salon ● May 31, 2026
Much of our success and well-being as officers would depend upon how we carried ourselves and interacted with in-mates.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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Last August, Herbert was photographed interacting with Beer on the set of the video shoot for her song “Angel Wings” at a house in Hancock Park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
During our child’s early years, my husband and I found it awkward interacting with other parents of young kids, many of whom were younger than us by about a decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
That program allows university students to live rent-free in small apartments within the Humanitas retirement community in exchange for spending at least 30 hours a month interacting with older residents.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
The findings are the second study from the Purple Mountain Observatory team exploring two component self interacting dark matter.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
After four years of interacting affectionately with the Lilienthals, however, two incidents severed the bond.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.