transliterate
/tɹænzˈlɪtəɹeɪt/verb
transliterate is a verb meaning “To represent letters or words in the characters of another writing system” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-R-A-N-S-L-I-T-E-R-A-T-E, and it appears about once in every 29 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does transliterate mean?
verb
- 1
To represent letters or words in the characters of another writing system.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce transliterate?
- /tɹænzˈlɪtəɹeɪt/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-transliterate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of transliterate
- transliterates present, singular, he/she/it
- transliterating participle, present
- transliterated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is transliterate?
Transliterate appears about once in every 29 million words in written English, the 163,711th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Transliterate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to represent letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | translittérer |
| German | transliterieren, umschreiben |
| Portuguese | transliterar |
| Spanish | transliterar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does transliterate come from?
From Latin transliterātum, past participle of transliterō, from trans (“across”) + literō , from littera (“letter”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).