Meaning of translate in English

translate

verb [ I or T ]

/trænzˈleɪt/ /trænˈsleɪt/ us

/trænsˈleɪt/ /trænzˈleɪt/

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to change words into a different language:

We were asked to translate a list of sentences.

translate from something into something She works for the UN, translating from English into French.

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interpret (BETWEEN LANGUAGES)

to change something into a new form, especially to turn a plan into something real:

translate into So how does this theory translate into practical policy?

translate well to The ways of working that he had learned at college did not translate well (= were not suitable) to the world of business.

translate something as something

to decide that words, behaviour, or actions mean a particular thing:

He mumbled something which I translated as agreement.

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You'll lose marks if you translate too literally.
It is a difficult passage, but just translate it as best you can.
Her novels have been translated into sixteen languages.
It can be very difficult to translate idioms.

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(Definition of translate from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

translate | American Dictionary

translate

verb [ I/T ]

/trænsˈleɪt, ˈtræns·leɪt/

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to change writing or speech from one language into another:

[ I ] Poetry does not translate easily.

If you translate an activity, you change it into a new form or condition:

[ I ] The ability to talk clearly does not automatically translate into the ability to write clearly.

translation

noun [ C/U ] us

/trænsˈleɪ·ʃən/

[ C ] I do translations at international meetings.

translator

noun [ C ] us

/trænsˈleɪ·t̬ər, ˈtræns·leɪ·t̬ər/

He is a translator at the UN.

(Definition of translate from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

translate | Business English

translate

verb

/trænzˈleɪt/ us

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[ I or T ]

to change something into a different form, or to be changed in this way:

be translated into sth An organization's "mission statement" is typically translated into a set of goals and measures which are then passed down to individual departments.

translate into sth Higher R&D spending does not always translate into competitive advantage.

translate sth into sth The Purchase Funnel Assessment assesses how effectively a brand translates awareness into purchases and retention.

[ I or T ]

to change the words of one language into the words in another language that have the same meaning:

Finding interpreters who can translate directly from Estonian to Portuguese is almost impossible.

translate sth into sth You can't just translate an English website into Spanish and assume it will still be effective.

be translated into sth The book has been translated into more than twenty languages.

[ T ] FINANCE, ACCOUNTING

if an amount in one currency is translated into another currency, its value is given in the other currency:

be translated into sth Foreign income is translated into U.S. dollars at the average exchange rate for the tax year in which the transactions are conducted.

(Definition of translate from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of translate

translate

In addition, there were other papers on designing economic plans, capital accumulation, and foreign examples of economic development plans, translated by the bank.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, every well-typed program can be translated to an equivalent stream-processing program.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Psychologists typically do not rely on a similarly unified theoretical framework that can be easily translated into experimental design.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Their seminal contributions have been of enormous consequence for understanding the relationships between development, environment, and poverty and have translated into significant policy advances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

How might this translate into the differences in onset of word recognition that we have identified?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is really a question of how these can meaningfully be translated into contemporary culture.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This is the point at which the programme experienced difficulties in being translated into practice.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At test, participants translated words in both translation directions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, these laudable aims have proven difficult to translate into practice.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, the project is one of a wide scope, involving the collecting, translating and organizing of hundreds of remedies from various sources.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The mechanical design and implementation of chain robots are generally simpler than in the other categories, which also translates into lower cost.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this sense, much of the material would be easily translated into a classroom context.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There must also be a party for which they can vote that promises to translate their fears into remedial government policy if elected to office.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We need to ask, then, how far this civic discourse translated into action once candidates were elected.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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