Did you know?
Construe comes from the Latin verb construere, meaning "to construct." There is also misconstrue, meaning "to put a wrong construction (that is, a wrong interpretation) on" or "to misinterpret."
Did you know?
Construe can usually be translated as "interpret". It's often used in law; thus, an Attorney General might construe the term "serious injury" in a child-abuse law to include bruises, or a judge might construe language about gifts to "heirs" to include spouses. The IRS's construal of some of your activities might be different from your own—and much more expensive at tax time. Construing is also close to translating; so when the British say "public school", for instance, it should be construed or translated as "prep school" in American terms.
Synonyms
Examples of construe in a Sentence
Longreads, 4 Apr. 2024
But the underlying intellectual paradigm of construing all human interactions as racial, and all history as colonial or anti-colonial, will have to give way to some new fashion, probably no more correct but, one hopes, less pernicious.
—Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023
After the confusion that followed, CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong sought to clear the air by explaining what could be construed as an attempt to have it both ways.
—Nick Rockel, Fortune, 29 Mar. 2024
What may be construed as nationalist fervor is actually a need to survive and carry on their ancestral legacy.
—Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 22 Mar. 2024
That said, celebs seemed wary of saying anything that could be construed as wrong in front of reporters.
—Jada Yuan, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2024
But, even though many protestors were careful to only hold up sheets of blank paper and avoided directly criticizing the central or provincial governments, their acts were construed as criticism of the state and its censorship system.
—Patrick Frater, Variety, 23 Feb. 2024
The AGs warned that could also apply to corporate hiring and employment practices, even going so far as to suggest that DEI programs might be construed as a form of discrimination.
—Robert Sheen, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
In particular, the airdrops – a second set was carried out Tuesday – only underscore for many Mr. Biden’s refusal since the beginning of the war to take any steps that might be construed as dictating actions to Israel or imposing any restraint on its right to self-defense.
—Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'construe.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Construe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/construe. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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