Word.ws English Dictionary

construe

/kənˈstɹuː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

obsolete/ˈkɒnstəɹ/

construe noun: a translation.

Noun

construe (plural construes)

  1. A translation.
    • Prayers and calling-over seemed twice as short as usual, and before they could get construes of a tithe of the hard passages marked in the margin of their books, they were all seated round, and the Doctor was standing in the middle, talking in whispers to the master.1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days
  2. An interpretation.

Verb

construe (third-person singular simple present construes, present participle construing, simple past and past participle construed)

  1. (transitive) To understand (something) as meaning, to take to mean.
    • Bru[tus]. […] But let not therefore my good Friends be greeu'd
      (Among which number Cassius be you one)
      Nor conſtrue any further my neglect,
      Then that poore Brutus with himſelfe at warre,
      Forgets the ſhews of Loue to other men.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.1954, Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
  2. (transitive) To interpret (something) to another or publicly, explain the meaning of (something, usually language).
    • This is a new fashionable proverb, which I must construe to you.1750, “To [Sir Horace Mann], Feb. 25. — Ministerial quarrels […] ”, in The Letter of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford, volume II, London: Richard Betley, New Burlington Street, published 1840, page 319
  3. (transitive) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence; to parse.
    • Thus, in a sentence such as:
      (113) John considers [_S Fred to be too sure of himself]
      the italicised Reflexive himself can only be construed with Fred, not with John: this follows from our assumption that non-subject Reflexives must have an antecedent within their own S. Notice, however, that in a...1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 8, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 436
  4. (ergative) To admit of grammatical analysis.
  5. (transitive) To translate.
  6. To infer.
  7. (obsolete) To explain.
    • Bru[tus]. […] Portia go in a while,
      And by and by thy boſome ſhall partake
      The ſecrets of my Heart.
      All my engagements, I will construe to thee,
      All the Charractery of my ſad browes.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

construe meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

construe in Tamil

உய்த்துணர், பொருள் கொள், பொருள்கொள், செய்

construe in Urdu

نتیجہ نکالنا, تفسیر کرنا, ترجمہ کرنا

construe in Bengali

ব্যাখ্যা করা, অর্থ করা

construe in Malayalam

അന്വയിക്കുക, വിവർത്തനം ചെയ്യുക, വ്യാഖ്യാനിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
construe in Kannada
ಬಿಡಿಸಿ ಹೇಳು, ತಿಳಿಸಿ ಹೇಳು, ಅರ್ಥೈಸು, ಅರ್ಥಮಾಡು

Examples of construe in a sentence

  • Not voting against a policy might be construed as nonobjection.
  • Recombination requires recognizing that what you had initially construed as a monolith is actually sunderable.
  • "One of these practices is ethics—the disciplined reflection on Christian moral life, Lutheranly construed.

All 30 example sentences with construe

Forms of construe

Noun
pluralconstrues
alternative form (obsolete)conster
Verb
third-person singular presentconstrues
present participleconstruing
past participleconstrued
pastconstrued

Origin of construe

From Middle English construen, from Late Latin construo, construere (“to relate grammatically”), from Latin construo (“pile together”); doublet of construct.

Words formed from construe

Questions about construe

What does construe mean?
Construe means a translation.
What is construe in Tamil?
Construe in Tamil is உய்த்துணர், பொருள் கொள், பொருள்கொள். See Construe meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is construe?
Construe can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce construe?
Construe is pronounced /kənˈstɹuː/.
What is the plural of construe?
The plural of construe is construes.

Words near construe in the dictionary

  1. constructs
  2. constructural
  3. constructurally
  4. constructure
  5. constructures
  6. construe
  7. construed
  8. construer
  9. construers
  10. construes
  11. construing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: construe (page history and authors); construe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); construe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); construe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); construe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); construe (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-عُثمان (Middle river exports)-construe.wav, en-us-construe.ogg.

Cite this entry: “construe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/construe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.