INTERPRET • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Interpret

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/ɪntˈərprət/ Listen

verb

Interpret v. t. (past & past part. interpreted; pres. part. interpreting)

To explain or tell the meaning of; to expound; to translate orally into intelligible or familiar language or terms; to decipher; to define; applied esp. to language, but also to dreams, signs, conduct, mysteries, etc.; as, to interpret the Hebrew language to an Englishman; to interpret an Indian speech. "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." "And Pharaoh told them his dreams; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh."

To apprehend and represent by means of art; to show by illustrative representation; as, an actor interprets the character of Hamlet; a musician interprets a sonata; an artist interprets a landscape.

Synonyms: To translate; explain; solve; render; expound; elucidate; decipher; unfold; unravel.

Interpret v. i. To act as an interpreter.

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Etymology of 'Interpret'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Interpret" Quotes from Famous Books

... sought a spokesman. Unlike Roosevelt, who led public opinion, unlike Taft, who disregarded it, Wilson took the attitude that the greatest force in the world was public opinion. He believed public opinion was greater than the presidency. He felt that he was the man the American people had chosen to interpret and express their opinion. Wilson's policy was to permit public opinion to rule America. Those of us who spent two years in Germany could see this ...

— Germany, The Next Republic? • Carl W. Ackerman

... of the sacrifice by making its due celebration depend more on special knowledge, and by increasing its elaborate mystery. Once the hymn was recognised as an essential element of such an act, the person who could interpret the hymn and explain its effects acquired great importance. And when the explanation of all the various features of the sacrifice was once begun, a wide door was opened to minute ingenuity. It is astonishing to what trifles these priestly directories descend, what explanations ...

— History of Religion - A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems • Allan Menzies

... me with a grave intensity of expression, which at first I hardly knew how to interpret. Now and then I saw his lips quivering, and as I described the little scene with the child in the park, he rose abruptly and began to walk up and down on the floor. As I had finished, he again dropped down into the chair, raised his eyes devoutly ...

— Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

... freedom and brotherhood and justice had been consummated, the Catholic and the Royalist were just as sorely burdened with the weight of kingly basenesses and priestly hypocrisies. If the one had some difficulty in interpreting Jacobinism and the Terror, the other was still more severely pressed to interpret the fact and origin and meaning of the Revolution; if the Liberal had Marat and Hebert, the Royalist had Lewis XV., and the Catholic had Dubois and De Rohan. Each school could intrepidly hurl back the taunts of its enemy, and neither of them did full ...

— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) - Essay 4: Joseph de Maistre • John Morley

... of Martyr's letters were addressed to both Ferdinand and Isabella. The former, however, was ignorant of the Latin language, in which they were written. Martyr playfully alludes to this in one of his epistles, reminding the queen of her promise to interpret them faithfully to her husband. The unconstrained and familiar tone of his correspondence affords a pleasing example of the personal intimacy to which the sovereigns, so contrary to the usual stiffness of Spanish etiquette, admitted men of ...

— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott

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