in‧ter‧pret W3 AC / ɪntɜprət, ɪntɜprɪt $ -ɜr- / 动词

1 [不及物和及物动词] to translate spoken words from one language into another :

They spoke good Spanish, and promised to interpret for me.

2 [及物动词] to believe that something someone does or something that happens has a particular meaning

interpret something as something

His refusal to work late was interpreted as a lack of commitment to the company.

3 [及物动词] to explain the meaning of something :

Freud’s attempts to interpret the meaning of dreams

4 [及物动词] to perform a part in a play, a piece of music etc in a way that shows your feelings about it or what you think it means

THESAURUS

translate 动词 [不及物和及物动词] to change written or spoken words into another language : She has translated a number of his books. | Michael Meyer translated the play from the original Norwegian. | Can you translate this into French?

interpret 动词 [不及物和及物动词] to change what someone is saying into another language, as they are speaking : No one in our tour group spoke Spanish so we had to ask the guide to interpret. | We’ll have to find someone who speaks Chinese to interpret the questions and answers for our guests. | I had to interpret for my boss on the last trip to Japan.

put something into English/French/Japanese etc British English to translate something into another language, especially a few words or a short piece of writing : I’ve written a message for Fabio. Could you put it into Italian for me? | I had to put a list of Japanese words into English.