construe

con·strue  (kn-str)

v. con·strued, con·stru·ing, con·strues

v.tr.

1. To adduce or explain the meaning of; interpret: construed my smile as assent. See Synonyms at explain.

2. Grammar

a. To analyze the structure of (a clause or sentence).

b. To use syntactically: The noun fish can be construed as singular or plural.

3. To translate, especially aloud.

v.intr.

1. To analyze grammatical structure.

2. To be subject to grammatical analysis.

n. (knstr)

An interpretation or translation.

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[Middle English construen, from Late Latin cnstruere, from Latin, to build; see construct.]

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con·strual n.

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construe [kənˈstruː]

vb -strues, -struing, -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. (Linguistics / Grammar) to analyse the grammatical structure of; parse (esp a Latin or Greek text as a preliminary to translation)

4. (Linguistics / Grammar) to combine (words) syntactically

5. (also intr) Old-fashioned to translate literally, esp aloud as an academic exercise

n

Old-fashioned something that is construed, such as a piece of translation

[from Latin construere to pile up; see construct]

construable  adj

construability  n

construer  n

Thesaurus

Verb

1.

construe - make sense of; assign a meaning to; "What message do you see in this letter?"; "How do you interpret his behavior?" interpret, see understand - know and comprehend the nature or meaning of; "She did not understand her husband"; "I understand what she means" be amiss, misapprehend, misconceive, misconstrue, misunderstand, misinterpret - interpret in the wrong way; "Don't misinterpret my comments as criticism"; "She misconstrued my remarks" read between the lines - read what is implied but not expressed on the surface mythicise, mythicize - interpret as a myth or in terms of mythology; "mythicize the ancient stories" literalise, literalize - make literal; "literalize metaphors" spiritualise, spiritualize - give a spiritual meaning to; read in a spiritual sense reinterpret - assign a new or different meaning to allegorise, allegorize - interpret as an allegory read, take - interpret something in a certain way; convey a particular meaning or impression; "I read this address as a satire"; "How should I take this message?"; "You can't take credit for this!" read - interpret something that is written or printed; "read the advertisement"; "Have you read Salman Rushdie?" read, scan - obtain data from magnetic tapes; "This dictionary can be read by the computer" consider, regard, view, reckon, see - deem to be; "She views this quite differently from me"; "I consider her to be shallow"; "I don't see the situation quite as negatively as you do" educe, elicit, evoke, extract, draw out - deduce (a principle) or construe (a meaning); "We drew out some interesting linguistic data from the native informant" co-occur with, collocate with, construe with, cooccur with, go with - go or occur together; "The word 'hot' tends to cooccur with 'cold'"

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construe

verb interpret, take, read, explain He may construe your approach as a hostile act.

Translations

construe [kənˈstruː] VT → interpretar

construe [kənˈstruː] vt (= interpret) → interpréter
to be construed as → être interprété(e) comme

construe

vt

(Gram) words → analysieren; sentence also → zerlegen; in English it is construed as an adjective → im Englischen wird das als Adjektiv betrachtet

(= interpret) → auslegen, auffassen

vi (Gram, sentence) → sich zerlegen or aufgliedern or analysieren lassen

construe [kənˈstruː] vt (interpret) → interpretare

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construe [kənˈstruː] vt (interpret) → interpretare