mistranslate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mistranslatesimple
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mistranslatessimple
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have mistranslatedperfect
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has mistranslatedperfect
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am mistranslatingprogressive
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are mistranslatingprogressive
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is mistranslatingprogressive
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have been mistranslatingperfect progressive
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has been mistranslatingperfect progressive
Past
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mistranslatedsimple
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had mistranslatedperfect
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was mistranslatingprogressive
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were mistranslatingprogressive
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had been mistranslatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mistranslate
Explanation
If you mistranslate something, you don't accurately describe or convey its meaning. It's easy to mistranslate a poem when you convert it from Spanish to English, failing to make its original meaning clear. When someone literally mistranslates a piece of writing or a section of speech, they use the wrong words when translating from one language to another. You can also mistranslate the intention of someone's words, even if you're not actually translating between two languages: "I managed to mistranslate my grandmother's message when I gave it to the gardener." Translate means "turn from one language to another," and mis- means "badly."
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:
When the interpreter is a no-show, family members often jump in to fill the gap - like the time Ray mischievously stepped up to "mistranslate" his school parents' evening to his own advantage.
From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2021
I then heard the interpreter mistranslate this question into Mandarin as “Why didn’t the interpreter interpret everything?”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 12, 2015
Emoji also tend to mistranslate when sent between platforms, or they get jumbled if you don’t have the right font.
From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2014
Did they mistranslate “world’s largest professional network” as “professional network that people actually use”?
From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2012
To translate it as ‘machine of the world’ is to mistranslate.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Another popular choice is the Chinese character for “freedom,” which mistranslates to mian fei, or “free of charge.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2023
Lane mistranslates, "Made for her a funeral procession."
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 10 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
In 2014, Japanese man Dorian Nakamoto was pursued by reporters who thought he was the elusive Bitcoin creator, but it proved to be false lead caused by some mistranslated information.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2024
Angwang told The Associated Press his words were either mistranslated from Mandarin or taken out of context.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 9, 2023
The works were later translated and made available on the language center’s website, which Holton used to investigate the origin of the mistranslated texts.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2023
In this case, he says, Reid mistranslated a key sentence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
This accurate description somehow got mistranslated as ‘tube’, but modern medicine seems to be stuck with the inaccurate version of the term.’
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Her Asian-American critics, like Jeffery Chan and Benjamin Tong, accused her of inauthenticity, willfully mistranslating Chinese stories and customs to appeal to a white readership.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 30, 2019
One of his interpreters confessed to frequently mistranslating his boss so as to make sense of the nonsense Arafat had spoken.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mr. Harford has transferred much of Vasari's writing to his own pages, but has succeeded in translating or mistranslating all vitality out of it.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 04, February, 1858 by Various
And cites Prisot; mistranslating 'ancien scripture' into 'holy scripture.'
From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson
This word "charity" was one of the words that Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, charged Tyndale with mistranslating.
From The Woman's Bible by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
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.
