verb · academic
interpret
UK/ɪnˈtɜːprət/US/ɪnˈtɜːrprət/in·TER·pret
to explain the meaning of something; to translate or understand in a particular way
Examples
“Researchers must be cautious when interpreting survey results.”
“Different readers may interpret the poem differently.”
“The data can be interpreted as supporting the hypothesis, but more research is needed.”
Band 8 sentence
“While the correlation is clear, interpreting it as causation would be premature without experimental evidence.”
Collocations
- interpret data
- interpret results
- be interpreted as
Word family
Common mistakes
interpret to→interpret as / interpret that
I interpret the graph shows→I interpret the graph as showing / I interpret that the graph shows
Say it for a higher band
5explain→6analyse→7+interpret
Synonyms
explain
Easily confused
explain
“Can you explain how this machine works?”
Related words
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In Sublist 2
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