Library / English Dictionary

CONSTRUE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make sense of; assign a meaning to

Example:

How do you interpret his behavior?

Synonyms:

construe; interpret; see

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "construe" is one way to...):

understand (know and comprehend the nature or meaning of)

Verb group:

consider; reckon; regard; see; view (deem to be)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "construe"):

be amiss; misapprehend; misconceive; misconstrue; misinterpret; misunderstand (interpret in the wrong way)

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)

literalise; literalize (make literal)

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)

read (interpret something that is written or printed)

read; scan (obtain data from magnetic tapes or other digital sources)

draw out; educe; elicit; evoke; extract (deduce (a principle) or construe (a meaning))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Also:

construe with (go or occur together)

Derivation:

construal (an interpretation of the meaning of something; the act of construing)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Then they seemed so familiar with French names and French authors: but my amazement reached its climax when Miss Temple asked Helen if she sometimes snatched a moment to recall the Latin her father had taught her, and taking a book from a shelf, bade her read and construe a page of Virgil; and Helen obeyed, my organ of veneration expanding at every sounding line.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)