Interpret Interpreted Meaning Verb ɪnˈtɜːprət ɪnˈtɜːrprət Students Asked

• the students were asked to interpret the poem.
• the data can be interpreted in many different ways.
• these results must be interpreted cautiously.
• i didn't know whether to interpret her silence as acceptance or refusal.

interpret

Verb Forms

1. to explain the meaning of something
• The students were asked to interpret the poem.
• The data can be interpreted in many different ways.
• These results must be interpreted cautiously.

Extra Examples

• judges who will faithfully interpret the Constitution
• These figures cannot be easily interpreted.
• We all seek to interpret what we hear and what we read.
• The figure of the Ancient Mariner has been variously interpreted.
2. to decide that something has a particular meaning and to understand it in this way
• COMPARE misinterpret
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/misinterpret
• I didn't know whether to interpret her silence as acceptance or refusal.
• The research focused on how parents interpret the behaviour of their toddlers.

Extra Examples

• Different people might interpret events differently.
• The title could be interpreted to mean ‘human intelligence’.
• The term ‘business’ is here interpreted broadly to include all types of organization in the public and private sectors.
• Her message was interpreted as a warning to the general.
• Her resignation has been widely interpreted as an admission of her guilt.
• The strictness of the rules, even when liberally interpreted, has the effect of restricting innovation.
• It is context and convention that determine whether a term will be interpreted literally or metaphorically.
3. to translate one language into another as it is spoken
• He took me with him to interpret in case no one spoke English.
• She couldn't speak much English so her children had to interpret for her.
• Interpreters must interpret everything that is said in the interaction.
4. to perform a piece of music, a role in a play, etc. in a way that shows your feelings about its meaning
• He interpreted the role with a lot of humour.

Word Origin

• late Middle English: from Old French interpreter or Latin interpretari ‘explain, translate’, from interpres, interpret- ‘agent, translator, interpreter’.