translator

[trans-ley-ter, tranz-, trans-ley-ter, tranz-]

noun

1. Also translater a person who translates.

2. Television.,  a relay station that receives programming on one frequency and rebroadcasts it at another frequency for improved local reception.

Word History and Origins

Origin of translator¹

1350–1400; Middle English translatour (< Middle French ) < Late Latin translātor ( Latin: “one who transfers a thing”); translate, -tor

Example Sentences

While the Chargers and Chiefs will treat Brazil strictly as business, leaving little room for exploring, Fouts and company — without handlers or translators — were cut loose on the streets of 1970s Tokyo.

From Los Angeles Times

The exchange was relayed by a Mandarin translator for Putin and a Russian translator for Xi, and has been translated into English by the BBC.

From BBC

With the help of an independent translator, she submitted an anonymous statement over email.

From BBC

“To keep the morale of the family high, I did not show them my panic,” he told ProPublica in one of multiple interviews conducted through a translator.

From Salon

“I have a very strong intolerance to injustice,” he says, a past victim of bullying and, like many children of immigrants, his mother’s de facto translator and legal avatar.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• linguist