Interpretation

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /ɪntÉšpɹəˈteɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Origin

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French, from Latin interpretationem, accusative of interpretatio, noun of action from interpretari ("to explain, expound, interpret, understand, conclude, infer, comprehend")

Full definition of interpretation

Noun

1. (countable) An act of interpreting or explaining what is obscure; a translation; a version; a construction.the interpretation of a foreign language, of a dream, or of an enigma.
2. (countable) A sense given by an interpreter; an exposition or explanation given; meaning .Commentators give various interpretations of the same passage of Scripture.''
3. (uncountable) The power of explaining.
4. (countable) An artist's way of expressing his thought or embodying his conception of nature.
5. (countable) An act or process of applying general principles or formulae to the explanation of the results obtained in special cases.
6. (countable, physics) An approximation that allows aspects of a mathematical theory to be discussed in ordinary language.
7. (countable, logic, model theory) An assignment of a truth value to each propositional symbol of a propositional calculus.

Related terms

• interpret
• interpretative
• interpreter
• interpretive