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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

... instructions struck at the root of warfare in the councils of princes. We may well be amazed at his political wisdom, and taught more emphatically than ever that we are to look for this not to the hack-politicians who think only of the cabals of the moment, but to the sage men who interpret the future from the high ground of reason and right. His political papers embody the lessons that France has since learned by a baptism of blood. Hardly a single principle now deemed necessary for the ...

— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various

... whatsoever to make either sex independent of the other are stark madness; yet there is a certain short-lived plausibility in the argument that women are to be independent of men, and this depends upon the fact which we have already attempted to demonstrate and interpret by means of Mendelism, that women are more than men, and that womanhood includes latent manhood. If, therefore, we are careful with the argument and boldly rush past the really crucial places, such as the conditions and needs of expectant and nursing motherhood, ...

— Woman and Womanhood - A Search for Principles • C. W. Saleeby

... and the number of years of freedom, and further declares (Judges ii:18) that the Hebrew state was prosperous during the whole time of the judges. (5) Therefore it is evident that Levi Ben Gerson (certainly a very learned man), and those who follow him, correct rather than interpret the Scriptures. ...

— A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part II] • Benedict de Spinoza

... after the obvious, common pleasures. What could you expect! Every boy and girl in this country is told from the first lesson of the cradle, over and over, that success is the one great and good thing in life. The people here are young and strong, and you can't blame them if they interpret that text a little crudely. But I am beginning to understand ...

— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... agitation, and the constitutional debate on slavery, Mr. Brawley shows his inability to develop his subject for he merely draws a few facts first from one field and then from another to fill out certain topics in the book without correlating them in such a way that the reader may be able to interpret their meaning. He has endeavored not to write a history but to summarize what other persons are now publishing as selected topics in this field. In other words, he has added to the unscientific history of the Negro, which has hitherto appeared in the so-called text books on Negro history, ...

— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 • Various

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