Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use construe in a sentence

30 example sentences · noun, verb

Construe means a translation. Example: “Not voting against a policy might be construed as nonobjection.”

Examples of construe by meaning

verbTo understand (something) as meaning, to take to mean.

  • The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.1954, Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons

More sentences with construe

  • Not voting against a policy might be construed as nonobjection.From the entry nonobjection
  • Recombination requires recognizing that what you had initially construed as a monolith is actually sunderable.2014, Bennett E. McClellan, The Total Question Workout, →ISBN. From the entry sunderable
  • "One of these practices is ethics—the disciplined reflection on Christian moral life, Lutheranly construed.1998, Karen L. Bloomquist, John R. Stumme, The Promise of Lutheran Ethics, Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 11. From the entry Lutheranly
  • In this reading predicates are construed so as radically to dispersonify their meanings.1981, Harvard English Studies - Volume 9, page 35. From the entry dispersonify
  • The removal of American troops would be construed by the Kremlin as an invitation to Finlandize Europe.1977, Parameters Journal of the US Army War College, volume VII, number 2, United States Army War College, page 9. From the entry Finlandize
  • Foreign nations will construe it as an admission that we're losing the war and we're begging for our lives.2006, John Crouch, The Monocacy Legacy, page 220. From the entry beg for one's life
  • All this effort at aligning the revolution of reaffirmation with Andhradesa need neither be construed adventuristic or possessionistic.2005, M Veerander, Buddhism: art, architecture, literature & philosophy. From the entry possessionistic
  • There are many situations where a domain is construed with only two members, but oppositeness seems to be absent.2004, William Croft, D. Alan Cruse, Cognitive Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 165. From the entry binarity
  • I shall follow the more recent practice, and shall construe "philosophy of logic" as "philosophy of deductive logic".2001, Mark Sainsbury, Logical Forms - An Introduction to Philosophical Logic, Second Edition, Blackwell Publishing, page 9. From the entry logic
  • This can be construed as nothing other than an assault on MSFT, which seems like a good idea to me.1997 February 10, David Ray, “SUNW - Java for 486/DOS?”, in misc.invest.stocks (Usenet). From the entry unseatable
  • They can be construed as putting a limit on the Tweedledees: only those exist for which there is an R-related Tweedledum.1989, Jon Barwise, The Situation in Logic, page 189. From the entry Tweedle-dum
  • Rivera: I do not think the definition of journalist is as narrowly construed these days as perhaps it was once.1989, ASNE: Proceedings of the 1989 Convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, page 13. From the entry cubbyhole
  • This simply says that the district court shall not undertake to construe a theretofore unconstrued Puerto Rican statute.1989, United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Political status of Puerto Rico, page 239. From the entry unconstrued
  • I insisted on how his opinion mattered, and developed and construed his platitudes into aperçus he was far from entertaining himself.1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 7, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 143. From the entry aperçu
  • It is very difficult not to construe the algorist as homunculus, although claims are made to the contrary.1982, Karl M. Dallenbach, Madison Bentley, Edwin Garrigues Boring, The American Journal of Psychology - Volume 95, page 212. From the entry algorist
  • For example, my own work was erroneously construed as "pro-circ" by a posting on the anticircumcision Internet listserv called INTACT-L (short for intact-list).2006, Eric Kline Silverman, From Abraham to America: A History of Jewish Circumcision, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 244. From the entry pro-circ
  • What the characters construe and misconstrue, we must deconstrue, a challenging exercise given that the characters are never honest even with themselves.2004, Laurie Maguire, Studying Shakespeare: A Guide to the Plays. From the entry deconstrue
  • But this latter phrase should be construed in the objective genitive as well, to reveal Morrow's perhaps unwitting testimony to Plato's hylomorphic stance.2001, John Protevi, Political Physics: Deleuze, Derrida, and the Body Politic. From the entry hylomorphic
  • The author of this volume admits that brilliant flights of genius are supernormal, perhaps superinfinite, but he declines to construe them as pathological.1916, John Duncan Quackenbos, Body and Spirit: An Inquiry Into the Subconscious, Based upon Twelve Thousand Experiences in the Author's…. From the entry superinfinite
  • These were construed into an answer.1911, Encyc. of Religion & Ethics. From the entry cledonomancy
  • For example, he construed from my xanthophobia that I must first have serialised my reminiscences in the yellow-backed Holywell Street Journal, of dubious and questionable memory.2021, Nick Dunn-Meynell, edited by David Macrum, A Proof Reader’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Andrews UK, →ISBN, page 187. From the entry xanthophobia
  • In contradistinction to this view, Abraham and Torok's theory of cryptonymy construes the bar or sign of repression as an object of investigation that gives itself to be read.2014, Esther Rashkin, Family Secrets and the Psychoanalysis of Narrative, →ISBN, page 37. From the entry cryptonymy
  • Literally construed the Act would allow design right to be claimed in the design of an insignificant part—a mere ‘twiddle’, as it was put in argument.2004, Reports of Patent, Design, and Trade Mark Cases. From the entry twiddle
  • Indeed, in Rashi’s reading, the liturgy of mourning that the kaddish accompanied was itself not construed as an expression of mourning, even if it was expressed by mourners.1998, Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish, Knopf, →ISBN, page 54, →ISBN. From the entry unlachrymose
  • Leslie unlocks the front door she remarks that, it being Thursday, it is Minnie's night off, and I construe this to lay emphasis on the privacy we will have.1979, William Styron, Sophie's Choice, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 189. From the entry dogwater
  • I want, however, to stress one further fact: because syncategoremata may be construed with whole sentences, the suspicion arises that they may somehow equivalate whole sentences.1976, Herman Parret, History of linguistic thought and contemporary linguistics, page 262. From the entry equivalate
  • The reason why it remains undispensed is that the dispensation which is actually granted cannot conceivably be construed as relating to the case that actually exists.1960, Catholic University of America, Canon Law Studies - Issue 392, page 195. From the entry undispensed
  • Thus, Wittgenstein's appeal to the diversity of language is construed as the claim that there are numerous subdivisions to the linguistic terrain and not a single whole to be delimited.2002, Meredith Williams, Wittgenstein, Mind and Meaning: Towards a Social Conception of Mind, Psychology Press, page 65. From the entry linguistic terrain
  • In a contest betwixt legal titles, instruments of writing thereabout must often be strictly construed, and that which may be called the real intent of the makers is sometimes defeated.1915, “102 S. C. 313. Etheredge et al. v. Ætna Ins. Co. (No. 9216.) (Supreme Court of South Carolina. Oct. 20, 1915.)”, in The…. From the entry betwixt

Meaning of construe

  1. noun A translation.
  2. noun An interpretation.
  3. verb To understand (something) as meaning, to take to mean.

Full definition of construe

Questions about construe in a sentence

How do you use construe in a sentence?
Construe is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Not voting against a policy might be construed as nonobjection.”
What is a short sentence with construe?
“These were construed into an answer.”
What does construe mean?
Construe means a translation.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: construe (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use construe in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/construe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.