interpreter

American  

[in-tur-pri-ter] / ɪnˈtɜr prɪ tər /

noun

• interpreters
  plural

1. a person who interprets.

2. a person who provides an oral translation between speakers who speak different languages.

3. Computers.

   1. hardware or software that transforms one statement at a time of a program written in a high-level language into a sequence of machine actions and executes the statement immediately before going on to transform the next statement.

   2. an electromechanical device that reads the patterns of holes in punched cards and prints the same data on the cards, so that they can be read more conveniently by people.

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interpreter British  

/ ɪnˈtɜːprɪtə /

noun

1. a person who translates orally from one language into another

2. a person who interprets the work of others

3. computing

   1. a program that translates a second program to machine code one statement at a time and causes the execution of the resulting code as soon as the translation is completed

   2. a machine that interprets the holes in a punched card and prints the corresponding characters on that card

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interpretership
  noun
• interpretress
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• interpreters
  plural

Etymology

Origin of interpreter

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English interpretour, from Anglo-French; equivalent to interpret + -er ²

Explanation

An interpreter is someone who translates something to make it understandable, usually spoken language. When your class takes a trip to Russia, you’ll likely have an interpreter to translate Russian to English so you can understand what people are saying to you. Need to talk to someone who doesn't speak your language? You'll need an interpreter. Say you're interviewing a Bulgarian diplomat, but you don't speak Bulgarian. The interpreter would listen to a few sentences in Bulgarian and then repeat them in English, and then listen to your English response and repeat that in Bulgarian. We also use interpreter for artists who represent ideas or places in their work. If you paint industrial cityscapes, you're an interpreter of urban life.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

interpreter interpreters

The workers traveled to Russia in groups, accompanied by a director, cook, interpreter, doctor and a foreman, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

As she says it, though, Jeon and co-star Cho Yeo-jeong are laughing — making the assertion rather harder to believe when it arrives in English from Korean via an interpreter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

Here was Douglass as constitutional interpreter and cultural historian.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

A network of groups normally helping migrant communities with things like food banks and interpreter support got together on WhatsApp.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

Although van Braam was not too enthusiastic, he agreed to act as Washington’s French interpreter on the wilderness mission.

From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen

But by August, a Russian job site was seeking Korean-language interpreters for Wildberries warehouses, suggesting that North Koreans would continue to be part of the company’s workforce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

She aims to enhance “access to justice” by ensuring clear communication and the consistent availability of interpreters.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026

But feelings soon thawed and the two great TV interpreters of animal behaviour eventually became friends.

From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026

As one of the site’s Nation Builders—first-person interpreters portraying figures of Revolutionary America—Smith regularly fields autograph requests and accepts gifts: a custom mug tiled with his own face, a vinyl album of original Jefferson ballads.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

When I was a boy, amaMfengu were the most advanced section of the community and furnished our clergymen, policemen, teachers, clerks, and interpreters.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Related Words

• artist
• commentator
• editor
• exponent
• linguist
• philosopher
• scholar
• writer