transliterate

verb

trans·​lit·​er·​ate tran(t)s-ˈli-tə-ˌrāt 

tranz-

transliterated; transliterating

transitive verb

: to represent or spell in the characters of another alphabet

transliteration

(ˌ)tran(t)s-ˌli-tə-ˈrā-shən 

(ˌ)tranz-

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

The two similar-sounding Chinese characters each have their own meanings, but none of particular significance when used to transliterate a foreign name. —Raul A. Reyes, Newsweek, 22 Jan. 2025

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

Word History

Etymology

trans- + Latin littera letter

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for transliterate

• illiterate
• literate

Kids Definition

transliterate

verb

trans·​lit·​er·​ate tran(t)s-ˈlit-ə-ˌrāt 

tranz-

transliterated; transliterating

: to represent or spell in the characters of another alphabet

transliteration

(ˌ)tran(t)s-ˌlit-ə-ˈrā-shən 

(ˌ)tranz-

noun