An interpreter is a practitioner of interpreting, an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. Interpreting (or interpretation) is an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. ...

A distinction is generally made between translation, where the source and target texts are written, from interpreting or interpretation, where the source and target are spoken. Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language—the called the source text—and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language—called the target text, or the translation. ...

In some interpreting situations, the translation is given as the source-speech speaker is still speaking (simultaneous interpreting); in others, a paragraph-by-paragraph translation is given, with the source-speech speaker taking alternate turns at the microphone (consecutive interpreting). Interpreting (or interpretation) is an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. ... Interpreting (or interpretation) is an activity that consists of establishing, either simultaneously or consecutively, oral or gestural communications between two or more speakers who are not speaking (or signing) the same language. ...

While any translation from one language to another can never be completely accurate (e.g. there is sometimes no translation into one language for a specific word, as the thing to which the word refers simply does not exist in that linguistic group), the trained interpreter tries to interpret not only the spoken words as accurately as possible, but also takes into account the intent of the message (cultural translation).