interpretverb
uk/ɪnˈtɜː.prɪt/us/-ˈtɝː-/interpret verb (FIND MEANING)
C1 [ T ] to decide what the intended meaning of something is:
It's difficult to interpret these statistics without knowing how they were obtained.
A jury should not interpret the silence of a defendant as a sign of guilt.
More examples
- Any change of policy will be interpreted as a sign of weakness.
- The whole play can be interpreted as a lament for lost youth.
- He interpreted her comments as an implicit criticism of the government.
- Recent happenings on the money markets can be interpreted in various ways.
- How do you interpret this passage of the poem?
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Analysing and evaluating
- analyse
- analyser
- analyst
- analytical
- analyze
- critical
- go through sth
- have the measure of sb/sth idiom
- inspect
- inspection
- interpretive
- measure
- proof
- sell sb/yourself/sth short idiom
- set great, little, etc. store by sth idiom
- sift
- sit
- sit in judgment on/over sb idiom
- size sth/sb up
- survey
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interpret verb (EXPRESS)
[ T ] to express your own ideas about the intended meaning of a play or a piece of music when performing it:
If Shakespeare's plays are to reach a large audience they need to be interpreted in a modern style.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Playing music
- accompaniment
- accompany
- busk
- conduct
- fiddle
- fingering
- improvisation
- interpreter
- jam
- music
- perform
- raise the roof idiom
- serenade
- sight-read
- strike
- strum
- swell
- tap sth out
- tune
- virtuoso
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Cinema & theatre: acting, rehearsing & performing
interpret verb (BETWEEN LANGUAGES)
B2 [ I or T ] to change what someone is saying into another language:
We had to ask our guide to interpret for us.
Compare
translate
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Using other languages
- anglophone
- code switching
- diglossia
- first language
- francophone
- linguist
- lusophone
- machine translation
- modern languages
- monolingual
- multilingual
- non-native speaker
- pinyin
- polyglot
- rendering
- speak
- translate
- translation
- trilingual
- word
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