Translation

How to spell translation

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce translation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does translation mean?

1. nounThe act or result of expressing the meaning of words from one language in another.
2. nounThe process of converting or transferring something from one form, system, or place to another.

Translation in a sentence

• The publisher commissioned a new translation of the novel.

• The translation of strategy into daily practice took several months.

• Some humour is lost in translation between the two languages.

• In physics, translation describes motion in a straight line without rotation.

Where does translation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin translatio, meaning 'a carrying across' or 'a transfer'. It was built from trans, meaning 'across', and latus, the irregular past participle of the verb ferre, 'to carry', so the literal idea is of meaning being carried over from one language into another. English took the word through Old French in the 1300s, when it described both the act of rendering text from one tongue to another and, in church contexts, the moving of a saint's relics from one place to another. The shared latus root explains why translation sits beside relations like 'relate', 'elate', and 'oblation', all of which involve a sense of carrying. The spelling trap is that the 's' is followed by 'l' and then '-ation', and writers sometimes second-guess whether it should be 'translation' or the non-existent 'transelation'.

How the word is built

• trans- (across)
• lat (carried, from latus, the past participle of ferre 'to carry')
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)