translate
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /tɹɑːnzˈleɪt/, /trænz-/, /tɹɑːns-/, /træns-/
  • (GA) IPA: /trænzˈleɪt/, /træn(t)s-/, /ˈtɹænzˌleɪt/, /ˈtɹæn(t)s-/
  • (New Zealand) IPA: /ˈtɹɛnzlæet/, [ˈtʃɹɛ̃nzɫæe̯ʔ]
Verb

translate (translates, present participle translating; past and past participle translated)

  1. Senses relating to the change of information, etc., from one form to another.
    1. (transitive) To change#Verb|change spoken#Adjective|spoken word#Noun|words or written#Adjective|written text#Noun|text (of a book#Noun|book, document#Noun|document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.
      Synonyms: overset
      Hans translated my novel into Welsh.
      • 2002, Matt Cyr, Something to Teach Me: Journal of an American in the Mountains of Haiti, Educa Vision, Inc., ISBN 1584321385, gbooks quEn9UyekEgC:
        His English is still in its beginning stages, like my Creole, but he was able to translate some Creole songs that he's written into English—not the best English, but English nonetheless.
    2. (intransitive) To provide a translation of spoken words or written text in another language; to be, or be capable of being, render#Verb|rendered in another language.
      Hans translated for us while we were in Marrakesh.
      That idiom doesn’t really translate.
      ‘Dog’ translates as ‘chien’ in French.
      • 2004, Ted Jones, The French Riviera: A Literary Guide for Travellers, Tauris Parke Paperbacks (2007), ISBN 9781845114558, chapter 3, gbooks :
        However appealing Antibes may be to migrant authors, indigenous ones are relatively scarce. A notable exception is Jacques Audiberti, Antibes-born novelist and prolific playwright who wrote in the turn-of-the-century surrealist style, with titles that translate as Slaughter, or In Favour of Infanticide.
    3. (transitive) To express#Verb|express spoken words or written text in a different (often clear#Adjective|clearer or simpler) way in the same language; to paraphrase#Verb|paraphrase, to rephrase, to restate.
    4. (transitive) To change (something) from one form#Noun|form or medium#Noun|medium to another.
      The director faithfully translated their experiences to film.
      • c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
        Happy is your grace, / That can translate the stubbornness of fortune / Into so quiet and so sweet a style.
      • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Goldsmith,_Oliver Goldsmith, Oliver]”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
        translating into his own clear, pure, and flowing language, what he found in books well known to the world, but too bulky or too dry for boys and girls
      1. (transitive, music) To rearrange (a song or music) in one genre into another.
    5. (intransitive) To change, or be capable of being changed, from one form or medium to another.
      Excellent writing does not necessarily translate well into film.
      His sales experience translated well into his new job as a fund-raiser.
    6. (transitive, genetics) To generate a chain#Noun|chain of amino acids base#Verb|based on the sequence#Noun|sequence of codons in an mRNA molecule.
  2. Senses relating to a change of position.
    1. (transitive, archaic) To move#Verb|move (something) from one place#Noun|place or position#Noun|position to another; to transfer#Verb|transfer.
      1. (transitive) To transfer the remains of a deceased#Adjective|deceased person (such as a monarch or other important person) from one place to another; (specifically, Christianity) to transfer a holy relic from one shrine to another.
        • In the chapel of St. Catharine of Sienna, they show her head—the rest of her body being translated to Rome.
      2. (transitive, Christianity) To transfer a bishop or other cleric from one post#Noun|post to another.
        • Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, when the king would have translated him from that poor bishopric to a better, [...] refused.
      3. (transitive, Christianity) Of a holy person or saint: to be assume#Verb|assumed into or to rise#Verb|rise to Heaven without bodily death; also (figuratively) to die#Verb|die and go to Heaven.
        • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Hebrews 11:5 ↗, column 2:
          By faith Enoch was tranſlated, that he ſhould not ſee death; and was not found, becauſe God had tranſlated him: For before his tranſlation he had this teſtimonie, that he pleaſed God.
      4. (transitive, medicine, obsolete) To cause#Verb|cause (a disease or something giving rise to a disease) to move from one body part to another, or (rare) between persons.
      5. (transitive, physics) To subject#Verb|subject (a body) to linear motion with no rotation.
      6. (intransitive, physics) Of a body: to be subjected to linear motion with no rotation.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To entrance, to cause to lose recollection or sense#Noun|sense.
    William was translated by the blow to the head he received, being unable to speak for the next few minutes.
Conjugation