construe
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To understand as meaning, to take to mean.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhnstrooSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənstˈɹu
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To understand (something) as meaning, to take to mean.
transitive
To interpret (something) to another or publicly, explain the meaning of (something, usually language).
transitive
To translate.
To infer.
noun
An interpretation.
A translation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To understand (something) as meaning, to take to mean.
Used this way, construe is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to understand (something) as meaning
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.