Meaning & use
interacting
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“interacting” is a form of “interact”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbintransitive
Communicating with someone, or doing things together so that each person or group affects the other.
Grammar: No direct object; use with: interacting with colleagues.
Patterns
- interacting with someone
- interacting with each other
She enjoys interacting with customers all day.
Shy children benefit from interacting with others in small groups.
The two teams were interacting well on the project.
verbintransitivetechnical
Affecting each other through contact or combination, as chemicals, drugs, animals or forces do.
Grammar: No direct object, usually with with: two drugs interacting with each other.
Patterns
- interacting with something
- interacting with each other
The medicine was interacting with her other pills.
Predators and prey are constantly interacting in the ecosystem.
Light interacting with water produces a rainbow effect.
verbintransitivecomputing
Using a computer program, device or website and responding to what it does.
Grammar: No object; with with: interacting with a screen.
Patterns
- interacting with a system
Users are interacting with the app mostly on their phones.
Children learn by interacting with the touchscreen display.
Word forms
| base form | interact |
|---|---|
| third person singular | interacts |
| past tense | interacted |
| -ing form | interacting |
Common combinations
- interacting with customers
- He spends most of his shift interacting with customers.
- interacting with each other
- The students were interacting with each other in pairs.
- interacting with the environment
- Plants are constantly interacting with the environment.
- interacting socially
- Online games let people keep interacting socially.
- interacting online
- Teens spend hours interacting online.
- drugs interacting
- The doctor warned about drugs interacting dangerously.
Synonyms and how they differ
- communicating
- Communicating focuses on exchanging information, while interacting also covers affecting each other without words.
- engaging
- Engaging suggests active involvement and is often followed by with, but can imply more deliberate effort than interacting.
- mixing
- Mixing is informal and means spending time socially with a group, so it is narrower than interacting.
- cooperating
- Cooperating means working together for a goal, whereas interacting can be neutral or even harmful.
Opposites
Word family
- interact verb
- to communicate or affect each other
- interaction noun
- the act of communicating or affecting each other
- interactive adjective
- allowing two-way communication
- interactively adverb
- in a way that allows two-way response
- interactivity noun
- the quality of allowing two-way response
Commonly confused: interacting or intercepting? interacting or interfering?
interacting vs intercepting
Intercepting means stopping or catching something on its way, whereas interacting means communicating or affecting each other.
interacting vs interfering
Interfering means getting in the way, usually unwanted, while interacting is neutral and can be positive.
Practice
The nurse enjoys ___ with patients every day.
Choose one answer.
Interacting with patients means communicating with them. Interfering and interrupting have the same with-less or negative sense, which makes them tempting but wrong here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “interacting”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.