lost in translation

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

an idiom meaning that the meaning, nuance, tone, or cultural resonance of something — an idea, a joke, a poem, an expression — is distorted, diminished, or entirely lost when translated from one language, cultural context, or medium to another; the phrase captures the fundamental challenge of translation: that languages do not map one-to-one onto each other, that some words and concepts have no direct equivalent, and that the full meaning of an utterance is embedded in its specific linguistic and cultural context in ways that cannot be perfectly reproduced; the idiom is used both literally — a particular joke was lost in translation — and figuratively — the subtle irony of her remark was entirely lost in translation when relayed to her boss; the phrase is also the title of Sofia Coppola's 2003 film about the experience of alienation and unexpected human connection in a foreign culture, which gave the idiom broader cultural resonance