interpretive

American  

[in-tur-pri-tiv] / ɪnˈtɜr prɪ tɪv /

adjective

1. serving to interpret; explanatory.

2. deduced by interpretation.

3. made because of interpretation.

   an interpretive distortion of language.

4. of or relating to those arts that require an intermediary, as a performer, for realization, as in music or theater.

5. offering interpretations, explanations, or guidance, as through lectures, brochures, or films.

   the museum's interpretive center.

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Other Word Forms

• interpretively adverb
• noninterpretive adjective
• noninterpretively adverb
• noninterpretiveness noun
• self-interpretive adjective
• uninterpretive adjective
• uninterpretively adverb

Etymology

Origin of interpretive

First recorded in 1670–80; interpret + -ive

Example Sentences

And right now, with the yield curve doing interpretive dance and credit spreads twitching like a politician’s eye during a deposition, banks have decided that the most profitable thing they can do is absolutely nothing.

From MarketWatch

Because her oeuvre is both so vivid and confoundingly strange, the interpretive frame proposed by the curators often feels frustratingly timid.

From The Wall Street Journal

Her group offers interpretive services through a third party.

From Barron's

ROSS, Calif. — On a sunny morning, 17 students from a preschool here in Marin huddle as close as possible to furloughed interpretive park ranger Adrian Boone of the Muir Woods National Monument.

From Los Angeles Times

Still, he and other textualists see the turn to dictionaries as an important corrective to interpretive excesses of the past.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• analytical
• informative