construe
Americanverb (used with object)
-
construes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
construed,
past participle, past
-
construing
present participle
-
to deduce by inference or interpretation; infer.
He construed her intentions from her gestures.
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to translate, especially orally.
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to analyze the syntax of; to rehearse the applicable grammatical rules of.
to construe a sentence.
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to arrange or combine (words, phrases, etc.) syntactically.
verb (used without object)
-
construes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
construed,
past participle, past
-
construing
present participle
noun
-
the act of construing.
-
something that is construed.
verb
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to interpret the meaning of (something)
you can construe that in different ways
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(may take a clause as object) to discover by inference; deduce
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to analyse the grammatical structure of; parse (esp a Latin or Greek text as a preliminary to translation)
-
to combine (words) syntactically
-
old-fashioned (also intr) to translate literally, esp aloud as an academic exercise
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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construesimple
-
construessimple
-
have construedperfect
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has construedperfect
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am construingprogressive
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are construingprogressive
-
is construingprogressive
-
have been construingperfect progressive
-
has been construingperfect progressive
Past
-
construedsimple
-
had construedperfect
-
was construingprogressive
-
were construingprogressive
-
had been construingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of construe
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English construen, from Latin construere “to put together, build,” equivalent to con- con- + struere “to pile up, arrange,” perhaps akin to sternere “to spread, scatter”; see strew, stratum
Explanation
If you interpret something or make sense of it, you construe its meaning. If the new girl in your class asks to sit with you at lunch, you could construe that she wants to be friends. You can never have too many friends! To make an assumption based on evidence is to construe. You could construe that eating an entire box of cookies might make you feel a bit sick. And you might not want to eat them again for a very long time. The opposite of construe is misconstrue, which means to falsely or wrongly interpret. If you get a poor grade on an essay, you shouldn't construe that your teacher dislikes you. If you do, you misconstrue your work for his feelings.
Vocabulary lists containing construe
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The Bill of Rights
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
By comparison, it is less clear how to construe Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s express but unexplained wish to grant the same petition.
From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2024
Circuit Court of Appeals, which he said could construe the law differently, or file a fresh lawsuit in state court.
From Seattle Times ● May 16, 2024
"A second cut would display their fears more openly and indicates greater weakness; we construe a second cut as a bearish signal unless the cuts are extremely substantive."
From Reuters ● May 31, 2023
I regret that my attempt to find a way to participate in the course in a manner that would have satisfied these concerns has enabled some to construe a potential conflict of interest.
From BBC ● May 24, 2023
Mammachi knew this, but preferred to construe Margaret Kochamma’s silence as a tacit acceptance of payment for the favors Mammachi imagined she bestowed on her son.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
How they decide — their reasoning — might have momentous implications for how the current court construes the Constitution.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 29, 2021
What emerges on the other side of the apocalypse as “Appleseed” construes it will barely resemble what went into it.
From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2021
As in none of your business, which often construes to “she’s fine” or “doing well” or “good,” depending on who asked.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 4, 2019
Simon construes constitutional protection from government intrusion as controls against human listening in on phone calls or reading messages.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 12, 2013
"And the law construes fraud into force," coolly answered Mr. Thornton.
From Daisy Burns (Volume 2) by Julia Kavanagh
As we have shown, courts long interpreted these life exceptions to protect physicians acting in good faith to preserve a patient’s life—and these actors construed “life” generously and with deference to physicians’ professional judgment.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
That order explicitly said that nothing in it should be construed as creating a mandatory licensing regime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
Some of these situational advantages could be construed as luck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
"Some may look at this incident as being somewhat playful, but it's hard to dissociate what could very easily be construed as animosity toward the police," he said.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
But Curtis refused to even listen to their offer, stating that he would not accept any plan “that might be construed as a pardon of the men on trial.”
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
In construing the meaning of an extraterrestrial dispatch, those who give it a go often try to anticipate what the message might be trying to say.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 3, 2023
So in applying this statute, the legal system isn’t just construing ambiguous language.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2023
"That is consistent with construing the speech and debate argument as a limited immunity like executive privilege. It also corresponds to the most important evidence from Pence," he tweeted.
From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2023
Within a decade, however, the Court had radically narrowed the scope of that amendment, construing it as “a vehicle for protecting corporate rights rather than those of the former slaves.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
He translated fully to each group of creatures the Abbot’s message, in turn construing back to the Father Abbot their grateful thanks with pledges of help and loyalty to Redwall Abbey.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
