transverbate
transverbate verb: to translate word by word, making only syntactic adjustments, but not adapting to the idiom of the target language.
Verb
transverbate (third-person singular simple present transverbates, present participle transverbating, simple past and past participle transverbated)
- To translate word by word, making only syntactic adjustments, but not adapting to the idiom of the target language.
- If we could take the Hebrew and the Greek and transverbate them it would be comparatively easy; but we have to remember always that we are translating for a people who do not regard the Bible in any sense as a book of authority.1897, Bible Society Record, page 2
- But here also one of the crying needs of the day is for competent, well-equipped native Christians who shall substitute for the translated or transverbated publications of the present, Christian tracts and books written by Chinese for the Chinese, in the form that will most powerfully appeal to...1899, Richard Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895
- Synonyms:
- transverbalize
Synonyms of transverbate
Forms of transverbate
| third-person singular present | transverbates |
|---|---|
| present participle | transverbating |
| past participle | transverbated |
| past | transverbated |
Origin of transverbate
From trans- + Latin verbum (“word”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Questions about transverbate
- What does transverbate mean?
- Transverbate means to translate word by word, making only syntactic adjustments, but not adapting to the idiom of the target language.
- What part of speech is transverbate?
- Transverbate is a verb.
- What is the past tense of transverbate?
- The past tense of transverbate is transverbated.
Words near transverbate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: transverbate (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: “transverbate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/transverbate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.