overtranslate
overtranslate verb: to translate (language) in too much detail, or including the translation of things that should be left as they are.
Verb
overtranslate (third-person singular simple present overtranslates, present participle overtranslating, simple past and past participle overtranslated)
- To translate (language) in too much detail, or including the translation of things that should be left as they are.
- When we select too-specific a rendering, we overtranslate, and, thus, risk adding information which may not be true.1974, American Translators Association, State University of New York at Binghamton. Translation Center, Translators and translating: selected essays from the American Translators Association summer...
- Translate the gateway, but don't overtranslate2010, John Yunker, The Art of the Global Gateway: Strategies for Successful Multilingual Navigation, Byte Level Books, →ISBN, page 86
Forms of overtranslate
| third-person singular present | overtranslates |
|---|---|
| present participle | overtranslating |
| past participle | overtranslated |
| past | overtranslated |
Origin of overtranslate
From over- + translate.
Questions about overtranslate
- What does overtranslate mean?
- Overtranslate means to translate (language) in too much detail, or including the translation of things that should be left as they are.
- What part of speech is overtranslate?
- Overtranslate is a verb.
- What is the past tense of overtranslate?
- The past tense of overtranslate is overtranslated.
Words near overtranslate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overtranslate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “overtranslate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overtranslate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.