interactive

American  

[in-ter-ak-tiv] / ˌɪn tərˈæk tɪv /

adjective

1. acting one upon or with the other.

2. of or relating to a two-way system of electronic communications, as by means of television or computer.

   interactive communications between families using two-way cable television.

3. (of a computer program or system) interacting with a human user, often in a conversational way, to obtain data or commands and to give immediate results or updated information.

   For many years airline reservations have been handled by interactive computer systems.

---

noun

1. a feature, activity, or medium that requires the active participation of the user, especially in a digital or educational context.

   Each chapter ends with an interactive to test what the reader has learned.

interactive British  

/ ˌɪntərˈæktɪv /

adjective

1. allowing or relating to continuous two-way transfer of information between a user and the central point of a communication system, such as a computer or television

2. (of two or more persons, forces, etc) acting upon or in close relation with each other; interacting

---

interactive Cultural  

1. If users receive real-time feedback from a computer so that they can modify the use of the machine, the hardware, software, or content, the system is said to be interactive.

---

Other Word Forms

• interactively adverb
• interactivity noun
• noninteractive adjective

Explanation

Something that is interactive is something that you can communicate or interact with. The coolest thing about the Internet is how interactive it is. You're constantly putting information and getting other information back. Think of interactive as the adjectival version of the verb "to interact." The inter- part of the word means "between, together, among," while the act- part means "to do." Put them together, and you get "to do together or among." Turn that verb into an adjective, and you get interactive. Interactive games are the most fun, because the more you and the game interact, the more interesting it is.

Example Sentences

The interactive installations complementing the artifacts include a 747 flight simulation and a 45-foot-long slide carrying visitors down to the bottom of the shuttle stack, which Rudolph himself has already ridden.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026

Simon Broucke didn’t expect to use his mathematics degree for his music assistant job at “Masquerade,” the new interactive revival of “The Phantom of the Opera” in New York.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026

"Even the interactive whiteboard is a screen," she says.

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026

To support education and awareness, the researchers have released a curated deepfake dataset that includes interactive quizzes for training purposes.

From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026

Time-sharing was interactive: A program could ask for a response, wait for you to type it in, act on it while you waited, and show you the result, all in “real time.”

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Related Words

• bilateral
• collective
• reciprocal