Other forms: interpreted, interpreting, interprets
To interpret something is to work out what it means and then say so. A doctor interpreting a scan; a friend interpreting a one-word reply from someone you like.
Interpret is not a neutral word — it admits that the meaning was not obvious and that a person had to decide. That is why judges interpret the law, and why two people interpret the same silence in opposite ways; the noun is interpretation, and there is room for more than one. The second big use is live translation, and here the line matters: an interpreter speaks, a translator writes. Musicians and actors interpret too, so a pianist's interpretation of a sonata is her version of it. Learn the frame interpret X as Y: she interpreted the pause as agreement.
1verbinterpretTo decide what something means and explain it.
“Courts interpret the law; parliament writes it.”
2verbturnTo turn spoken words from one language into another as they are being said.
“She interprets from Arabic at the clinic twice a week.”
3verbperformTo perform a piece of music or a role in your own way.
“He interprets the part as comic rather than tragic.”
Latin interpres was a middleman — a broker, a go-between, an explainer — built from inter, between, and a second part probably tied to pretium, price. The first interpreter stood between two parties and settled what the deal meant. The verb interpretor, to explain or expound, travelled through Old French enterpreter into Middle English interpreten.
Latin
interpretor — to explain, expound, interpret
Old French
enterpreter
Middle English
interpreten
English, today
interpret
Built from
From Middle English interpreten, from Old French enterpreter, (French interpréter), from Latin interpretor (“to explain, expound, interpret”), past participle interpretatus, from interpres (“an agent, broker, explainer, interpreter, negotiator”), from inter (“between”) + -pres, probably the root of pretium (“price”); -pres is probably connected with Ancient Greek φράζειν (“to point out, show, explain, declare, speak”), from which φραδή (“understanding”), φράσις (“speech”); see phrase.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA