verb · academic
interpret
UK/ɪnˈtɜːprɪt/US/ɪnˈtɝːprɪt/in·TER·pret
to explain the meaning of something or to understand something in a particular way
Examples
“How we interpret the survey results will affect policy recommendations.”
“Different cultures may interpret the same gesture differently.”
“The data can be interpreted in several ways, so the authors were cautious.”
Band 8 sentence
“When multiple variables interact, researchers must be careful how they interpret causation from correlation.”
Collocations
- interpret data/results
- interpret as
Word family
Common mistakes
We interpret the data that climate change is not significant.→We interpret the data as showing that climate change is not significant.
She interpret results carefully.→She interprets results carefully.
Say it for a higher band
5explain→6analyse→7+interpret
Synonyms
explain
Easily confused
explain
“A historian may interpret a text differently from a linguist who tries to explain its grammar.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In Sublist 5
Learn it with its set