Explanation

When your favorite band covers a classic tune, their version is their interpretation — their translation — of the music. Is it better than the original? That's up for interpretation. Interpretation is the act of explaining, reframing, or otherwise showing your own understanding of something. A person who translates one language into another is called an interpreter because they are explaining what a person is saying to someone who doesn't understand. Interpretation requires you to first understand the piece of music, text, language, or idea, and then give your explanation of it. A computer may produce masses of data, but it will require your interpretation of the data for people to understand it.

Vocabulary lists containing interpretation

Argumentative Writing, List 2

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STAAR English I: The Language of the Test 1

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STAAR English II: The Language of the Test 1

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See Examples For:

If the baseball players choose to disclaim this time, they would likely sue in another circuit in search of a different interpretation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026

Verdict: While the interpretation on hair pulling was relaxed for this season, meaning this would not be a red card, there appeared to be a yank of the hair by the Everton defender.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

“We’re not following someone else’s interpretation of Tolkien,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026

Still, Mike Flanagan’s interpretation has divided the audience.

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026

Reinforcing that interpretation of a single invention of pottery in the south and a spread from that one source, the style of the earliest Jomon pottery is fairly uniform over the whole of Japan.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Understanding how magnetic fields affect these stellar explosions could therefore help astronomers refine their interpretations of supernova brightness and improve their understanding of cosmic expansion.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026

Rather than rehashing traditional compositions, the group recognizes these sorely untapped sounds as living and malleable, creating new interpretations that bring them to our times without losing an ounce of their essence and verve.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

He said he was not looking for "historical interpretations of IPA".

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

Despite a request from litigants to overturn prior rulings in Kisor, a slim majority of the court ruled that judges were still required to defer to an agency’s interpretations of its regulations.

From Slate ● Oct. 18, 2026

What makes it especially difficult to discuss Japanese archaeology dispassionately is that Japanese interpretations of their past affect their present behavior.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond