interpretation

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Meaning

Nouns

1. interpretation, definition; explanation, explication; solution, answer; rationale, concept; strict interpretation; demonstration; meaning; acception, acceptation, acceptance; light, reading, lection, construction, version; subtext; semantics. Informal, spin, take. See teaching.

2. translation, rendering, rendition, paraphrase, construct; literal or free translation; secret, clue; dissertation; attribution. Informal, trot, bicycle. Slang, pony.

3. (analysis) exegesis; expounding, exposition, megillah; comment, commentary; inference, deduction (see reasoning); illustration, exemplification; glossary, annotation, scholium, note, elucidation; symptomatology; reading of signs, semeiology; diagnosis, prognosis; metoposcopy; paleography, philology; equivalent, synonym; polyglot.

4. (code interpretation) decipherment, decodement; cryptography, crypt-analysis; key, solution, answer, light.

5. lecture, sermon, tract; discussion, disquisition; treatise, discourse, exposition, study; critique, criticism; essay, theme, thesis.

6. interpreter, explainer, translator; expositor, exponent, expounder; demonstrator, definer, simplifier, popularizer; oracle, teacher; commentator, annotator, scholiast; constructionist; diagnostician; decoder, cryptographer, cryptanalyst. Informal, spin meister or doctor.

Verbs — interpret, explain, define, construe, translate, render; do into, turn into; paraphrase, restate; read; spell or make out; decipher, unravel, disentangle; illuminate, clarify, find the key of, make sense of, make heads or tails of, enucleate, resolve, solve, get at, clear up, get to the bottom of; read between the lines; account for; find or tell the cause of; throw or shed light on; clear up, elucidate; illustrate, exemplify; unfold, expound, comment upon, annotate, gloss; key; popularize; understand by, put a construction on, be given to understand; put or get across, get over, get through to. Informal, psych out.

Adjectives — interpretive, interpretative; definitive; inferential, deductive, explanatory, expository; explicative, explicatory, exegetical, illustrative; polyglot; literal; paraphrastic, metaphrastic; cosignificative, synonymous, equivalent.

Adverbs — interpretively, interpretatively, in explanation; that is to say, id est, videlicet, to wit, namely, in short, in other words; literally, strictly speaking, in plain words or English; more simply.

Quotations — A translation is no translation unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it (John Synge), Translations (like wives) are seldom strictly faithful if they are in the least attractive (Roy Campbell), Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art (Susan Sontag).

Antonyms, see unmeaningness, distortion.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [An explanation]

Syn. account, rendition, exposition, paraphrase, statement, diagnosis, description, representation, definition, elucidation, presentation, argument, paraphrase, translation, gloss, answer, solution; see also explanation 1 , translation .

2. [A conception]

Syn. version, reading, construction, understanding, deduction, point of view, commentary, annotation, idea, analysis, recreation, criticism, dissertation, essay, discussion, appreciation, theme, critique, examination, study, take*, spin*; see also exposition 2 , review 2 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

understanding, reading, slant, perception, meaning, definition, explanation, view.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. Something that serves to explain or clarify: clarification, construction, decipherment, elucidation, exegesis, explanation, explication, exposition, illumination, illustration. Archaic: enucleation. See EXPLAIN. 2. Critical explanation or analysis: annotation, comment, commentary, exegesis, note. See WORDS. 3. One's artistic conception as shown by the way in which something such as a dramatic role or musical composition is rendered: execution, performance, reading, realization, rendering, rendition. See PERFORMING ARTS.