lost in translation

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

lost in translation (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Unable to be understood due to having been poorly translated.

   I tried reading the instruction manual but many of the steps were unfortunately lost in translation.

   The message of the Japanese Prime Minister's speech was lost in translation.

Related terms

• translation loss

Translations

unable to be understood due to having been poorly translated

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 翻譯腔 / 翻译腔 (zh) (fānyìqiāng)

• Finnish: kadota käännöksessä