translator
Americannoun
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translators
plural
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Also translater a person who translates.
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Television. a relay station that receives programming on one frequency and rebroadcasts it at another frequency for improved local reception.
noun
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a person or machine that translates speech or writing
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radio a relay transmitter that retransmits a signal on a carrier frequency different from that on which it was received
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computing a computer program that converts a program from one language to another
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of translator
1350–1400; Middle English translatour (< Middle French ) < Late Latin translātor ( Latin: “one who transfers a thing”); see translate, -tor
Explanation
A translator is someone who conveys material communicated in one language such as English into another language — like French, Chinese, or Spanish — without losing the literal meaning or nuances of the original work. Ideally, a translator is fluent in at least two languages, so they can translate what is being said in one language into another language without changing its original meaning. The Latin root of translator is translatus, which means "carried over," and a translator who's good at her job carries the meaning over into a completely different language.
Vocabulary lists containing translator
Inside Out & Back Again
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 3
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Unit 19, Lesson 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The student, who is also a freelance translator, has also found it hard to concentrate on lectures knowing he could be missing out on work opportunities.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
"I answered the first question in Spanish, as we had a translator present, and he answered in perfect English and I thought: 'Why you little?!'"
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Damon is the simplest and most reliable vehicle to tell us about a complicated man, as the highly lauded translator Emily Wilson describes Odysseus.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
An international-school tutor and translator in Suzhou, Zhou borrowed from his parents and took out bank loans to cover the costs of the surrogacy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
I did not stop to tell the translator or the interviewers that I did not know what apartment, groceries, and utilities were.
From "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" by John Bul Dau
It requires subject experts, translators, reviewers and moderators.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Because magnons naturally interact with many different quantum systems, they could also act as universal translators, allowing technologies that normally cannot communicate with one another to work together.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
We were staying in the same spot; we had translators.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
The decade-long trial was beset by delays due to coronavirus disruptions and problems securing translators.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
But most people couldn’t afford that, and the translators had reputations for being fast-talkers.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
