interpretation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of interpreting.
2. n. A result of interpreting.
3. n. An explanation or conceptualization by a critic of a work of literature, painting, music, or other art form; an exegesis.
4. n. A performer's distinctive personal version of a song, dance, piece of music, or role; a rendering.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of interpreting, expounding, or explaining; translation; explanation; elucidation: as, the interpretation of a difficult passage in an author; the interpretation of dreams or of prophecy.
2. n. The sense given by an interpreter; assumed meaning; apparent meaning; signification: as, varying interpretations of the same passage or event: to put a bad interpretation upon anything. In law, interpretation in this sense usually implies either that a word or phrase, read in the light of other parts of the instrument or of extrinsic evidence, is found to have a meaning different from that first apparent on its face; or
3. n. The representation of a dramatic part or character, or the rendering of a musical composition, according to one's particular conception of it: as, an original and spirited interpretation of “Hamlet.”

Wiktionary

1. n. countable An act of interpreting or explaining what is obscure; a translation; a version; a construction.
2. n. countable A sense given by an interpreter; an exposition or explanation given; meaning .
3. n. uncountable The power of explaining.
4. n. countable An artist's way of expressing his thought or embodying his conception of nature.
5. n. countable An act or process of applying general principles or formulae to the explanation of the results obtained in special cases.
6. n. countable, physics An approximation that allows aspects of a mathematical theory to be discussed in ordinary language.
7. n. countable, logic An assignment of a truth value to each propositional symbol of a propositional calculus.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of interpreting; explanation of what is obscure; translation; version; construction.
2. n. The sense given by an interpreter; exposition or explanation given; meaning.
3. n. rare The power or explaining.
4. n. (Fine Arts) An artist's way of expressing his thought or embodying his conception of nature.
5. n. (Math.) The act or process of applying general principles or formulæ to the explanation of the results obtained in special cases.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of interpreting something as expressed in an artistic performance
2. n. an explanation that results from interpreting something
3. n. a mental representation of the meaning or significance of something
4. n. an explanation of something that is not immediately obvious