construes

verb

present tense third-person singular of construe
as in explains
to make plain or understandable the role of the justices of the Supreme Court in construing the constitution

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of construes Critics said the report essentially equates one stand of conservative Christianity to be representative of Christians overall, then construes policy disagreements to be persecution. — ABC News, 1 May 2026 That said, its capacity to pass laws is constrained when the Guardian Council construes them as contradicting or conflicting with the constitution and religion. — Eric Lob, The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for construes
  1. explains
  2. clarifies
  3. illustrates
  4. demonstrates
  5. interprets
Verb
  • Odds of getting shares were worse than one in five thousand, which explains pretty loudly why the stock popped so much on launch.
    — John Koetsier, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2026
  • Here, The Athletic explains the latest situation in terms of both outgoings and incomings at St James’ Park.
    — Chris Waugh, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of explains
Verb
  • The first clarifies that its PLX product does not provide law enforcement agencies with geolocation data, and the second says that the company has reached out to the complaint's authors to ask that the complaint against Penlink be withdrawn.
    — Jude Joffe-Block, NPR, 20 Aug. 2026
  • The report carefully clarifies that some of the points for analysis refer specifically to the app (for example, Claude or Gemini) while others relate to the provider (for example, Anthropic or Google).
    — Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of clarifies
Verb
  • That sentiment illustrates a central tension raised by many of the actors who shared their stories with CNN.
    — Simone McCarthy, CNN Money, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Customer experience illustrates the distinction; an evolutionary approach focuses on reducing handling time, lowering cost to serve, and improving agent productivity.
    — Peter Bendor-Samuel, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of illustrates
Verb
  • Reports have revealed that moving such a large and capable naval formation into a region experiencing serious tensions demonstrates that Washington is prepared to maintain substantial military capabilities there.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 22 Aug. 2026
  • An audit demonstrates that controls were tested during a prior period.
    — Bora Unlu, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of demonstrates
Verb
  • Across its restaurants, bars, and private dining experiences, Conrad Punta de Mita interprets the flavors of Mexico’s Pacific coast with creativity and balance.
    — Robb Report Studio, Robb Report, 19 Aug. 2026
  • Sickafoose's team interprets this as being the haze particles settling towards lower latitudes.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of interprets

Browse Nearby Words

construed
construes
construing
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Construes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/construes. Accessed 25 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on construes

Nglish: Translation of construes for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of tilde

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

How to Pronounce the Trickiest Menu Items

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 21

16 Glee-ridden Words from Schitt's Creek
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
alt-684346df967d5
Add A Letter Quiz Pick the letter that goes in the same spot in fou...
See All