construed

American  

[kuhn-strood] / kənˈstrud /

adjective

1. interpreted or understood.

   Degrees from these “diploma mills” are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience.

2. arrived at by inference or interpretation.

   Public interest must necessarily overlap with a correctly construed definition of “national interest.”

3. arranged or combined syntactically.

   Her soothing tones and delicate, thoughtfully construed statements only burrowed further and more painfully into his heart.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of construe.

Other Word Forms

• unconstrued adjective

Etymology

Origin of construed

construe ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

He implored those same liberals to look beyond the Totenkopf and dig deeper into Platner’s stated policy goals, for which he has expressed nothing that could be construed as Nazi ideology.

From Slate • Apr. 13, 2026

"Some may look at this incident as being somewhat playful, but it's hard to dissociate what could very easily be construed as animosity toward the police," he said.

From BBC • Feb. 25, 2026

We believed the Constitution limited the federal government to the powers enumerated in it, and that these weren’t to be construed so as to deny our constitutional rights.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2026

"To the uninformed American listener, the ongoing talks between Denmark and Greenland might have been construed as if Greenland's secession from Denmark was imminent," said Greenland specialist Mikaela Engell.

From Barron's • Jan. 13, 2026

But he couldn’t remember, and besides it was impossible to know what action might later be construed as a crime.

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

• define
• infer
• interpret
• parse
• translate