transliterate

verb

trans·​lit·​er·​ate tran(t)s-ˈli-tə-ˌrāt How to pronounce transliterate (audio)
tranz-
transliterated; transliterating

transitive verb

: to represent or spell in the characters of another alphabet
transliteration noun

Examples of transliterate in a Sentence

The Russian letter Я is usually transliterated in English as ya or ia.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Yet the naming customs — along with their origins and meanings — tell the reader a lot about what to examine, for instance, why there are dozens of ways to transliterate even common Indigenous place names. Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman, 8 July 2024 Mother’s behavior cannot merely be transliterated into social history. Will Self, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024 Textbooks that simply transliterate English into an Indian script are of limited use, says Aniket Sule, a professor at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. Byvaishnavi Chandrashekhar, science.org, 5 Sep. 2024 The city has asked translators to furnish names that are transliterated, a process that more closely approximates English pronunciations. Amy Qin, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2024 The family and its spokespeople have transliterated their names as both Shem and Schem but used the former spelling on place cards at the news conference Tuesday. Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Washington Post, 17 Oct. 2023 Much of the exhilaration was inspired by the seeming miracles that a new kind of AI—deep learning—was achieving in playing games, recognizing faces, and transliterating voices. IEEE Spectrum, 29 June 2020 Many attempts have been made to transliterate Chinese in the Latin alphabet. Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2022 The government has also vowed to transliterate candidates’ names in 2021 – a strategy not required by law but used in nearby Boston to make ballots less confusing for Chinese speakers. Lindsey McGinnis, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Jan. 2021

Word History

Etymology

trans- + Latin littera letter

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of transliterate was in 1835

Dictionary Entries Near transliterate

Cite this Entry

“Transliterate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transliterate. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

transliterate

verb
trans·​lit·​er·​ate tran(t)s-ˈlit-ə-ˌrāt How to pronounce transliterate (audio)
tranz-
transliterated; transliterating
: to represent or spell in the characters of another alphabet
transliteration noun

More from Merriam-Webster on transliterate

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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