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construe

[verb kuh n-stroo or, esp. British, kon-stroo; noun kon-stroo]
verb (used with object), con·strued, con·stru·ing.
  1. to give the meaning or intention of; explain; interpret.
  2. to deduce by inference or interpretation; infer: He construed her intentions from her gestures.
  3. to translate, especially orally.
  4. to analyze the syntax of; to rehearse the applicable grammatical rules of: to construe a sentence.
  5. to arrange or combine (words, phrases, etc.) syntactically.
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verb (used without object), con·strued, con·stru·ing.
  1. to admit of grammatical analysis or interpretation.
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noun
  1. the act of construing.
  2. something that is construed.
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Origin of construe

1325–75; Middle English construen < Latin construere to put together, build, equivalent to con- con- + struere to pile up, arrange, perhaps akin to sternere to spread, strew; see stratum
Related formscon·stru·er, nounun·con·strued, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

translateinferinterpretdefineparseexpoundrenderreadexplicateunderstandtakedecipheranalyze

Examples from the Web for construing

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • For their construing I have been given what schoolboys call a crib.

    Another Sheaf

    John Galsworthy

  • The same caution should be observed in construing the terms of an agreement.

    The Common Law

    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  • The next day the Sixth Form, as usual, went into the library to do their construing.

  • He held it open, but the period of construing had evidently passed.

    The Shadow of Life

    Anne Douglas Sedgwick

  • "Nay, I meant no offence," he said, construing the look correctly.

    Boscobel: or, the royal oak

    William Harrison Ainsworth

British Dictionary definitions for construing

construe

verb -strues, -struing or -strued (mainly tr)
  1. to interpret the meaning of (something)you can construe that in different ways
  2. (may take a clause as object) to discover by inference; deduce
  3. to analyse the grammatical structure of; parse (esp a Latin or Greek text as a preliminary to translation)
  4. to combine (words) syntactically
  5. (also intr) old-fashioned to translate literally, esp aloud as an academic exercise
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noun
  1. old-fashioned something that is construed, such as a piece of translation
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Derived Formsconstruable, adjectiveconstruability, nounconstruer, noun

Word Origin

C14: from Latin construere to pile up; see construct
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for construing

construe

v.

late 14c., from Late Latin construere "to relate grammatically," in classical Latin "to build up, pile together" (see construction); also see construct (v.), which is a later acquisition of the same word. Related: Construed; construing; construal.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper