interpretation
Pluralinterpretations
- 1The meaning or explanation that an interpreter draws out of something; the sense given to it.
Critics disagreed sharply over the correct interpretation of the painting.
His interpretation of the witness's silence shaped the whole investigation.
Similarreading, explanation, understanding, construction, analysis
Note
Where the act of interpreting names the doing, this names what the doing produces, so it takes a plural freely: commentators give various interpretations of the same passage of Scripture. Michael Krausz's Rightness and Reasons (1993) sorts such readings into admissible and inadmissible ones and asks whether one admissible reading can be preferable to another. Readings are given or offered, and they can compete.
- 2The act of interpreting or explaining something unclear; a translation or version of it.
The committee asked for a plain interpretation of the dense legal clause.
Her interpretation of the foreign speech kept the delegates following along.
Similargloss
Note
Behind every sense of the word stands Latin interpretātiō, a noun of action built on interpretor, a verb that could mean to explain, to expound, to understand or to infer. That breadth survives here: one offers an interpretation of a dream, an enigma or a set of rules, and the word stretches from decoding a puzzle to rendering a language. In English it is simply interpret plus -ation.
- 3An artist's way of expressing thought or capturing a conception of nature through their art.
The director's bold interpretation set the ancient tragedy in a modern city.
Her interpretation of the sonata lingered on phrases other performers rushed through.
Similarrendition, rendering, reading, version, performance
- 4The discipline of translating spoken or signed language into another language, distinct from translation, which deals with written text.
She trained in interpretation before joining the diplomatic service.
Conference interpretation demands intense concentration and a wide vocabulary in both languages.
Similarinterpreting
Note
Translation studies draws a firm line here: interpretation works with speech or sign, translation with written text. The field names its modes, as in consecutive interpretation, and Alessandra Riccardi, in Translation Studies: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline (2002), called interpretation studies a young discipline, much younger than its written-language sibling. Interpreting is a common synonym for the same work.
- 5The power or ability to explain things and make them clear.
The scholar's powers of interpretation turned obscure documents into vivid history.
A great lecturer combines deep knowledge with a gift for interpretation.
Similarexplanation, elucidation, exposition, analysis
- 6The act of applying general principles or formulas to explain the results obtained in particular cases.
Her interpretation of the survey figures rested on standard statistical models.
The team's interpretation of the anomaly applied known equations to an unusual measurement.
Similaranalysis, explanation, reading
- 7An approximation that lets aspects of a mathematical theory be discussed in ordinary language.
The standard interpretation treats the squared wavefunction as a probability.
Physicists still argue over which interpretation best describes what the math really means.
Note
Physics borrows the word for the bridge between equations and plain talk. A theory's mathematics can be exact while its interpretation stays approximate, which is why the word is countable here: the same formalism can carry more than one, and physicists speak of rival interpretations of a single theory. Unlike the logician's truth-value assignment, it is a gloss on a formalism rather than part of it.
- 8A specification of whether each propositional symbol in a propositional calculus is true or false.
Under one interpretation the formula is true, while under another it is false.
Each interpretation gives every variable in the formula a value of either true or false.
Similarvaluation
Note
Logic gives the word its strictest form: a function handing each propositional symbol the value true or false. Fix one, and the truth of every formula built from those symbols is fixed with it, so logicians say a formula is true or false under an interpretation, never in the abstract. Where the physicist's sense carries mathematics into words, this one contains no words at all.
- 9Short for heritage interpretation.
The national park invested heavily in interpretation to engage its visitors.
Good interpretation helps tourists connect with the history of an old town.
Note
A clipping that works only where the setting supplies the missing word: museums, zoos, historic sites and galleries, where explaining natural and cultural heritage to visitors is the job. Like the full compound, it serves as a mass noun (a park invests in interpretation), though it can be counted too. For a general audience, write heritage interpretation in full, or readers will hear the everyday "explanation" meaning.
Practice
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Origin
The word passed through Old French and Anglo-Norman into Middle English, ultimately from Latin interpretātiō, a noun of action from interpretor ('to explain, expound, interpret, understand'). It is formed from 'interpret' plus '-ation'.