Standard Lemma guide

transliterate

verb · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /tɹænzˈlɪtəɹeɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To represent letters or words in the characters of another writing system.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

rewrite in a different script

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • The Sanskrit text had to be transliterated

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: transcribe

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: rewrite

Narrower terms: Romanize, Romanise, Latinize, Latinise, braille

History

Etymology

From Latin transliterātum, past participle of transliterō, from trans (“across”) + literō , from littera (“letter”).

Across languages

Translations

54 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: tejshkronjëzoj — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Armenian: գրադարձել (gradarjel) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Asturian: treslliterar — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Azerbaijani: transliterasiya etmək — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Azerbaijani: transliterasiya eləmək — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Belarusian: транслітары́раваць (translitarýravacʹ) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Belarusian: транслітарава́ць (translitaravácʹ) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Bulgarian: транслитери́рам (transliteríram) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Catalan: transliterar — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Chinese Mandarin: (進行)轉寫 /(进行)转写 — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Chinese Mandarin: (進行)音譯 /(进行)音译 — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Czech: transliterovat — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Dutch: omschrijven — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Dutch: translitereren — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Estonian: translitereerima — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Finnish: translitteroida — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • French: translittérer — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Galician: transliterar — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • German: transliterieren — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • German: umschreiben — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Hungarian: átbetűz — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Hungarian: transzliterál — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Hungarian: betűnként/betű szerint átír — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Irish: traslitrigh — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Italian: traslitterare — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Japanese: 字訳する (jiyaku suru) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Japanese: 書き写す (kakiutsusu) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Korean: 자역하다 (jayeokhada) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Korean: 음역하다 (eumyeokhada) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Latvian: transliterēt — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Lithuanian: transliteruoti — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Macedonian: транслитери́ра (transliteríra) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Persian: حرفنویسی کردن (harf-nevisi kardan) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Persian: نویسهگردانی کردن (nevise-gardâni kardan) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Polish: transliterować — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Portuguese: transliterar — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Russian: транслитери́ровать (transliterírovatʹ) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Serbo-Croatian: транслитери́рати — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Serbo-Croatian: transliterírati — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Slovak: transliterovať — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Slovene: transliterirati — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Spanish: transliterar — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Swedish: translitterera — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Swedish: transkribera — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Tamil: ஒலிபெயர் (olipeyar) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Tamil: ஒலிபெயர்ப்பு செய் (olipeyarppu cey) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Thai: ทับศัพท์ (táp-sàp) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Thai: ถอดอักษร (tɔ̀ɔt-àk-sɔ̌ɔn) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Tibetan: ཡིག་གཟུགས་ཕབ་སྒྱུར་བྱས (yig gzugs phab sgyur byas) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Ukrainian: транслітерува́ти (transliteruváty) — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Vietnamese: chuyển tự — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Vietnamese: dịch âm — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Vietnamese: chuyển dịch — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script
  • Welsh: trawslythrennu — to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script