interpret
verb
transitive verb
intransitive verb
Synonyms
- clarify
- clear (up)
- construe
- demonstrate
- demystify
- elucidate
- explain
- explicate
- expound
- get across
- illuminate
- illustrate
- simplify
- spell out
- unriddle
Example Sentences
New York Times, 28 July 2022 The court’s jurisdiction — its power or right to interpret a law — is laid out in Article 3 Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Haben Kelati, Washington Post, 20 June 2022 Conservative Supreme Court justices, most notably Justice Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts, have described it as incompatible with the judiciary’s duty to interpret the law. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 20 June 2022 Uber, Lyft, and Amazon.com all filed briefs backing Southwest, urging the court not to interpret the law’s exception as covering their workers. Greg Stohr, BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2022 Biden’s activist agency officials, however, can’t resist the temptation to creatively interpret the law’s terms in order to advance their Build Back Better agenda. Tony Woodlief, National Review, 4 Mar. 2022 Chevron deference is about persuading the courts that an agency’s expertise leaves it best positioned to interpret the law. Benjamin Willis, Forbes, 18 Oct. 2021 The 23-page opinion leaned heavily on originalism, the conservative legal theory that judges should interpret the Constitution based on the way it was understood when it was written. Derek Hawkins, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2022 Other hospitals have created special groups of doctors and lawyers to help interpret new laws and decide when a pregnancy can be legally terminated. New York Times, 23 Aug. 2022 See More Word History
Middle English, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French interpreter, from Latin interpretari, from interpret-, interpres agent, negotiator, interpreter
14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1
Kids Definition
interpret
verb
Brian Jacques, Redwall Legal Definition
interpret
transitive verb
L. H. Tribeinterpret
verb
Synonyms & Similar Words
- explain
- clarify
- illustrate
- demonstrate
- construe
- simplify
- explicate
- illuminate
- elucidate
- analyze
- expound
- demystify
- decipher
- define
- spell out
- get across
- specify
- decode
- resolve
- unriddle
- solve
- clear (up)
- disentangle
- unravel
- unscramble
- annotate
- untangle
- undo
- gloss
- break down
- commentate
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- obscure
- confuse
- confound
- cloud
- obfuscate
- befog
Synonyms & Similar Words
- play
- perform
- portray
- depict
- do
- represent
- act
- impersonate
- dramatize
- enact
- render
- mimic
- act out
- imitate
- underplay
- pantomime
- take on
- overplay
- overact
- playact
- mime
- masquerade
- ape
- role-play
- clown
- ham
- pose (as)
- coact
- costar
- star (in)
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of interpret are elucidate, explain, explicate, and expound. While all these words mean "to make something clear or understandable," interpret adds to explain the need for imagination or sympathy or special knowledge in dealing with something.
The meanings of elucidate and interpret largely overlap; however, elucidate stresses the throwing of light upon as by offering details or motives previously unclear or only implicit.
While the synonyms explain and interpret are close in meaning, explain implies a making plain or intelligible what is not immediately obvious or entirely known.
In some situations, the words explicate and interpret are roughly equivalent. However, explicate adds the idea of a developed or detailed analysis.
The words expound and interpret can be used in similar contexts, but expound implies a careful often elaborate explanation.