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Adapter vs Interface - What's the difference?

adapter | interface |

As nouns the difference between adapter and interface

is that adapter is one who is capable of adapting well to differing situations while interface is the point of interconnection between entities.

As a verb interface is

to construct an interface for, to connect through an interface.

adapter

English

(wikipedia adapter)

Alternative forms

* (l)

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who is capable of adapting well to differing situations.
    • He was an able adapter , and could easily adjust to the differences when the company changed ownership.
  • One who adapts a thing, e.g. a play.
    • The critic gave rave reviews to the adapter of the ancient play, who worked to give the text more relevance to the modern day.
  • A device or application used to achieve operative compatibility between devices that otherwise are incompatible.
    • He had an adapter that let him plug his phone into the car's cigarette lighter for power.
  • * '>citation
  • # Specifically, a device that permits two, three, or more plugs to be used at a single electrical power point.
  • The wall outlet sprouted an electrical monstrosity of adapters''' plugged into '''adapters that sparked ominously.
  • # Specifically, a device that allows one format of plug to be used with a different format of socket.
  • We bought adapters to use our three-prong plugs in the two-prong, unpolarized outlets of the old house.
  • # Specifically, an AC-adaptor: a device that reduces voltage and converts AC to DC to allow a battery-powered device to use mains power.
  • I lost my cellphone's adaptor so I couldn't recharge it.

    • Derived terms

    * AC adapter * power adapter

    Related terms

    * adapt * adaptability * adaptable * adaptableness * adaptably * adaptation * adaptational * adaptative * adaptatively * adaptativeness * adaptedness * adaptee * adaption * adaptional * adaptitude * adaptive * adaptively * adaptiveness * adaptly * adaptness * adaptorial

    External links

    * (commonslite)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    interface

    English

    (wikipedia interface)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The point of interconnection between entities.
    • Public relations firms often serve as the interface between a company and the press.
  • (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 .
  • (computing) The point of interconnection between systems or subsystems.
    • The data is sent over the air interface to the remote system.
  • (computing) The connection between a user and a machine.
    • The options are selected via the user interface .
  • (computing, object-oriented) The connection between parts of software.
    • This interface is implemented by several Java classes.
  • (computing, object-oriented) 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 .

    Derived terms

    * abstract interface * generic interface * marker interface * network interface * user interface

    Verb

    (interfac)
  • to construct an interface for, to connect through an interface
  • to be an interface, to be into an interface