Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use translate in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Translate means to change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. Example: “Hans translated my novel into Welsh.”

Examples of translate by meaning

verbTo change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.

  • Hans translated my novel into Welsh.
  • When I was learning Spanish, I would often take my favorite songs and try to translate them.1997 September 13, Matt Cyr, “Saturday, September 13th [1997]”, in Something to Teach Me: Journal of an American in the Mountains of Haiti...
  • Its scientific name is “Daptolestes bronteflavus,” which is derived from Latin like most scientific names – and translates to “blond thunder.”2020 July 29, Jessie Yeung, “Australia names new species after Deadpool, Thor, and other Marvel favorites”, in CNN

verbTo provide a translation of spoken words or written text in another language; to be, or be capable of being, rendered...

  • Hans translated for us while we were in Marrakesh.
  • That idiom doesn’t really translate.
  • ‘Dog’ translates as ‘chien’ in French.

verbTo change (something) from one form or medium to another.

  • The director faithfully translated their experiences to film.
  • Embracing slave spirituals as the foundation of the Negro music he hoped to develop, Cook sought to translate their sonic power and racial character into forms more readily accessible to American audiences of all races in the twentieth century.2015, David [Walker] Gilbert, “A New Musical Rhythm was Given to the People: Ragtime and Representation in Black Manhattan”, in The Product...
  • Sue Anne considered several approaches for translating the damselfly's vivid colors and translucent wings into handwoven cloth.2026, “Damselfly Scarf”, in Lynn Rognsvoog, editor, Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 77

verbTo change, or be capable of being changed, from one form or medium to another.

  • Excellent writing does not necessarily translate well into film.
  • His sales experience translated well into his new job as a fund-raiser.
  • When perfection is achieved, the thrill of recognition in the audience fulfills local sensibilities, but translates poorly into academic discourse.1999, Karen L. Hero, “Missed Opportunities: American Anthropological Studies of Micronesian Arts”, in Robert C. Kiste, Mac Marshall...

verbTo generate a chain of amino acids based on the sequence of codons in an mRNA molecule.

  • First is the mRNA itself, which is the template "read" and translated into a protein product.2015, Erich Grotewold, Joseph Chappell, Elizabeth A[nne] Kellogg, “Translation of RNA”, in Plant Genes, Genomes and Genetics, Chichester...

verbTo map (the axes in a coordinate system) to parallel axes in another coordinate system some distance away.

  • It is convenient at this point to translate the axis of the n dimensional space so that the origin of each axis occurs at its arithmetical mean.1957 April–June, Leo Marcus, “A Mathematical Tool in Industry: An Algorithm for Curve Fitting by the Method of Least Squares”, in John...

verbTo subject (a body) to linear motion with no rotation.

  • We can translate the container and its contents through space, and the physics inside the container is unchanged.2004, Stephen Webb, “Symmetry”, in Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern Physics, New...

verbOf a body: to be subjected to linear motion with no rotation.

  • Let us assume the gas molecule to be a structureless "billiard ball," translating in space and frequently colliding with the neighboring molecules.2015, Ethirajan Rathakrishnan, “High-temperature Flows”, in High Enthalpy Gas Dynamics, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Singapore, →ISBN...

More sentences with translate

  • His speech was in French, but was simultaneously translated into eight languages.From the entry in
  • The tour group asked their questions in Italian, and their tour guide translated.From the entry Italian
  • The idea that the Bible should be translated into vernaculars was explosive in medieval society.From the entry vernacular
  • A big obstacle to understanding the manual was that it had been poorly translated from the Japanese.From the entry obstacle
  • If he plans to translate all the idioms, he has his work cut out for him.From the entry have one's work cut out for one
  • He had a down-to-earth attitude that translated into a straightforward, but effective strategy.From the entry down-to-earth
  • You translated the words correctly, but the sentences are very Yoda-like. Perhaps you should review your grammar.From the entry Yoda
  • The compiler translated the code into LLVM IR.From the entry IR
  • The shaft can be turned rotationally, but not translated.From the entry rotationally
  • Many small businesses are forced into being cost-conscious, and their decisions around data custody may eventually translate to long-term setbacks.From the entry data custody
  • Equivalence is important, but when translating poetry, you need to get across the feel and the emotion more than the exact semantic meaning.From the entry equivalence
  • Lapp Gold - translation of the Finnish beer brand Lapin Kulta which can also be variously translated as "Gold from Lapland", "Lapland Gold" and hence "Lapp Gold"From the entry Lapp
  • Attempting to translate such ciphers wherever she encountered them was Mrs Touchet’s private delight.2023, Zadie Smith, The Fraud, Hamish Hamilton, page 145. From the entry decipherer
  • Karoshi, a Japanese word that literally translates as "overwork death," is known as sudden occupational mortality.2022 July 12, Dwayne J. Clark, “KAROSHI CULTURE: A WARNING TO WORKAHOLICS”, in Dwayne J. Clark, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2023. From the entry guolaosi
  • It was time-consuming and required a person who knew Blissymbols to help translate.2020, Carla Sinclair, Girl Genius, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 139. From the entry Blissymbols
  • And it has almost always made for some 'paisa-vasool' moments when translated on screen.2020 June 28, Anvita Singh, “Into the Night: A lockdown gift from Netflix”, in The Indian Express. From the entry paisa vasool
  • Figure 1(a) shows a novel translating follower having double oblique flat-faced configuration.2019, Chin-Hsing Kuo, Pei-Chun Lin, Terence Essomba, Robotics and Mechatronics, page 165. From the entry double-oblique
  • For instance, the aim of the Eʋe & Proud-focused group is to translate Ewe names into English.2018, Elvis Yevudey, “The representation of African languages and cultures on social media: a case of Ewe in Ghana”, in Augustine Agwuele…. From the entry Eʋe
  • Mount Kumgang, or Geumgangsan, which translates as Diamond Mountain, has always been a muse for Koreans.2018 December 13, “North and South Korea meet through handshakes and art”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2018…. From the entry Kumgang
  • Topics range from funerals to the idea of the poetics of google translating Swedish song lyrics.2017 February, E. Conner, “Chasing the Night #3”, in Maximum Rocknroll, number 405, San Francisco, Calif.: Maximum Rocknroll, →ISSN…. From the entry google translate
  • As I translated, however, Valeo's face contorted, his overbrow furrowing as he picked at his food.2016, Anne Boles Levy, The Well of Prayers. From the entry overbrow
  • Phyllanthus niuri (chanca piedra) herb is a traditional litholytic; its Spanish common name translates as “stone breaker.”2016, Chughtai Bilal, Healing In Urology, →ISBN. From the entry litholytic
  • The word einherjar is usually translated as lone warriors, but that doesn't really capture the meaning.2015, Rick Riordan, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer, page 60. From the entry einherjar
  • Rare instances of misconduct or instances of irreproducibility are translated into concerns that science is broken.2015 June 26, Bruce Alberts, “Self-correction in science at work"”, in Science, volume 348, →DOI, pages 1420–1422. From the entry irreproducibility

Meaning of translate

  1. verb To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.
  2. verb To provide a translation of spoken words or written text in another language; to be, or be capable of being, rendered in another language.
  3. verb To express spoken words or written text in a different (often clearer or simpler) way in the same language; to paraphrase, to rephrase, to restate.

Full definition of translate

Questions about translate in a sentence

How do you use translate in a sentence?
Translate is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Hans translated my novel into Welsh.”
What is a short sentence with translate?
“That idiom doesn’t really translate.”
What does translate mean?
Translate means to change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: translate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use translate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/translate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.