translate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To change words from one language into another.

   Can you translate this letter from French into English?

2. 2
   verb

   To explain something in simpler or clearer words.

   Can you translate the legal terms into plain English for me?

3. 3
   verb

   To result in or lead to something else.

   Higher wages translate into greater spending power.

From Middle English translaten (“to transport, translate, transform”), from Anglo-Norman translater, from Latin trānslātus, perfect passive participle of trānsferō (“to transport, carry across, translate”). See also -ate (verb-forming suffix). Distant doublet of transfer, see collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others. In this sense, displaced Old English wendan (“to translate,” also the word for “to turn” and “to change”).

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