machine translation
noun
Simple meaning
Translating something from one language to another using a machine.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhsheentranzlayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məˈʃintɹænzˈleɪʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
translation studies
The act of translating something from one language to another by means of a machine, especially a computer.
translation studies
The use of computers to translate from one language to another
computingprogramming
The production of instructions in a computer language that are equal in meaning to that in another language.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (translation studies) The act of translating something from one language to another by means of a machine, especially a computer.
Used this way, machine translation is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a computing use: it carries a fixed technical meaning inside software and systems work.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technology
- Technical/specialist writing
- Business/professional
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.