interpreter
Americannoun
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interpreters
plural
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a person who interprets.
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a person who provides an oral translation between speakers who speak different languages.
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Computers.
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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.
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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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noun
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a person who translates orally from one language into another
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a person who interprets the work of others
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computing
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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
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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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Vocabulary lists containing interpreter
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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:
“Hard to tell at this point,” the 32-year-old Ohtani said in Japanese, via interpreter Will Ireton.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
That’s one reason federal law requires most providers to make healthcare communication meaningfully available in the language patients understand, via a human interpreter for spoken communication and a translator’s review for written information.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
“I haven’t been able to really come to grip in terms of what I’ve learned overall this season,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Severinov, giving evidence through an interpreter, said he was repairing bikes and e-bikes.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Behind me, in the jeep, my daughter Kathleen sat waiting with a government interpreter, and now and then I could hear the two of them talking in soft voices.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
She said in communities where myths existed around screening, time is also required to explain what is involved and allay fears and potentially work with interpreters.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
What to know: The director Mike Flanagan has become one of the pre-eminent Stephen King interpreters in recent years with his film adaptations of “Doctor Sleep” and “The Life of Chuck.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
The officers on the blue vessel spoke English and shouted orders via interpreters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
It is anticipated that the services introduced under the bill - such as more translators and interpreters - will cost about £3m a year.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
Most of the interpreters are Eyes, or so it’s said.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
