Translate

How to spell translate

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce translate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does translate mean?

1. verbTo express the meaning of speech or writing in another language.
2. verbTo convert or transform something into a different form, effect, or result.

Translate in a sentence

• She was hired to translate the contract into French.

• The manager wanted to translate the new ideas into clear action.

• The app can translate a menu by scanning the photo.

• Strong sales should translate into higher profits this quarter.

Where does translate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word translate comes from the Latin translatus, the past participle of the verb transferre, which literally meant 'to carry across' or 'to bring over'. It was built from trans, meaning 'across', and the verb ferre, meaning 'to carry' or 'to bear', though the past-participle stem of ferre was the irregular latus, which is why the spelling carries 'lat' rather than 'fer'. English borrowed the word during the 1300s, originally with the broad sense of physically moving something from one place to another, including the ceremonial moving of a saint's relics or the elevation of a bishop to a new see. From this idea of carrying meaning across, the word came to describe rendering a text from one language into another, which is now its dominant sense. The same Latin ferre root, through that latus stem, also gives us 'relate', 'collate', and 'legislate', and noticing the shared 'lat' can help fix the spelling in mind.

How the word is built

• trans- (across)
• lat (carried, from latus, the past participle of ferre 'to carry')
• -e