interpreter

[ in-tur-pri-ter ]

noun

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. Compare compiler ( def 2 ).
   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.

interpreter

/ 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

Derived Forms

• inˈterpreterˌship, noun
• inˈterpretress, noun:feminine

Word History and Origins

Origin of interpreter¹

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

Example Sentences

It is "American Psycho," a fictional tale of infamy inside the protagonist's mind and cruelly appointed apartment, that showed Harron as a master visual interpreter of popular literature as well as popular history.

From Salon

Disney also offers sign-language interpreters, wheelchair and scooter rentals, assistive handheld captioning and video captioning on some rides, and dialogue and narration of scripts on others.

From Los Angeles Times

These reminders can range from having to face medical appointments with no available interpreter to being excluded from important decisions about your own life, he says.

From BBC

“It was definitely a sense of relief,” Pages said in Spanish through a team interpreter after the game.

From Los Angeles Times

An Afghan interpreter was also arrested alongside the British couple.

From BBC

Related Words

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