Final answer:
Interference is the genetic phenomenon that reduces the expected number of multiple crossovers during meiosis, inhibiting the formation of nearby crossovers and thus affecting genetic linkage and recombination.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term that refers to the phenomenon that reduces the expected number of multiple crossovers is (A) Interference. Interference is a concept in genetics which describes the suppression of the formation of expected additional crossovers during meiosis. Essentially, it means that the occurrence of one crossover event can inhibit the formation of another crossover nearby, which affects the genetic linkage and recombination between genes. This is different from epistasis, where one gene's expression masks or alters another gene's expression. Gene coupling and homologous recombination are both related to the physical linkage and the recombination of genes, but neither directly describes the reduction of expected crossover events due to interference.