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interpretation

nounattested in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən//
  • Canada//ɪnˌtɝpɹəˈteɪʃən//
  • Australia//ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈtæɪʃən//

An act of interpreting or explaining something unclear; a translation; a version.

noun

  1. 1

    An act of interpreting or explaining something unclear; a translation; a version.

    The interpretation of a dream, or of an enigma

    The interpretation of the rules

    Putting the matter in this way implies a situation in which all social conflicts have disappeared; and this confirms the interpretation according to which Marx and Engels held that the abolition of class divisions would at the same time abolish all other sources of conflict.

  2. 2

    A sense given by an interpreter; an exposition or explanation given; meaning.

    Commentators give various interpretations of the same passage of Scripture.

    Again, the multiplist would hold that the grounds for separating admissible from inadmissible interpretations cannot be the same as the grounds for preferability among admissible interpretations.

  3. 3

    The discipline or study of translating one spoken or signed language into another (as opposed to translation, which concerns itself with written language).

    I believe that interpretation, particularly consecutive interpretation, is an art. I also believe, however, that the skill of consecutive interpretation can be taught, but only up to a point.

    Interpretation studies is a young discipline, much younger than translation studies, and it cannot claim a long tradition and history of reflexions ^([sic]) and studies.

    The most pervasive need of non-English-speaking immigrants and refugees is interpretation for every English transaction. Interpretation is needed in stores, schools, and job training, and it is of critical importance in health care.

  4. 4

    The power of explaining.

  5. 5

    An artist's way of expressing thought or embodying a conception of nature through art.

  6. 6

    An act or process of applying general principles or formulae to the explanation of the results obtained in special cases.

  7. 7

    An approximation that allows aspects of a mathematical theory to be discussed in ordinary language.

  8. 8

    An assignment of a truth value to each propositional symbol of a propositional calculus.

  9. 9

    Variant of heritage interpretationShort for heritage interpretation

Etymology

From Middle English interpretacioun, from the Anglo-Norman form of Old French interpretacion, from Latin interpretātiō, noun of action from interpretor (“to explain, expound, interpret, understand, conclude, infer, comprehend”). Morphologically interpret + -ation.

Forms

plural
interpretations
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).