Undertranslate

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To translate (language) in insufficient detail, or failing to translate certain elements.

    "Secondly, there is a tendency to undertranslate, viz. to normalise by generalising, to understate, in all translation but particularly in literary translation."

Example

More examples

"Secondly, there is a tendency to undertranslate, viz. to normalise by generalising, to understate, in all translation but particularly in literary translation."

Etymology

From under- + translate.

More for "undertranslate"

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.