Meanings
present singular third person misconstrues · participle present misconstruing · participle past misconstrued · past misconstrued
- transitiveTo interpret erroneously, to understand incorrectly; to misunderstand.
misconstrue remarks
5 more examples
His words were misconstrued as an insult.
It’s easy to misconstrue her silence as agreement.
misconstrue the meaning
misconstrue someone’s intentions
1975: Paul Simon, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover from the album Still Crazy after All These Years. […] furthermore, I hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued […]
Synonyms: misconstruct, misinterpret, misunderstand, confound, confuse, misanalyze, misapprehend, miscomprehend
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo interpret erroneously, to understand incorrectly; to misunderstand.
More synonyms by meaning
verbinterpret in the wrong way
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishmisconstruen
- Englishmisconstrue
From Middle English misconstruen, equivalent to mis- + construe.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian разбирам погрешно
- разбирам погрешно (razbiram pogrešno)to interpret erroneously
Chinese Mandarin 誤會 /误会, 誤解 /误解
- 誤會 /误会 (wùhuì)to interpret erroneously
- 誤解 /误解 (wùjiě)to interpret erroneously
Dutch misverstaan, verkeerd interpreteren
- misverstaanto interpret erroneously
- verkeerd interpreterento interpret erroneously
Finnish tulkita väärin, ymmärtää väärin
- tulkita väärinto interpret erroneously
- ymmärtää väärinto interpret erroneously
German fehldeuten, falsch deuten
- fehldeutento interpret erroneously
- falsch deutento interpret erroneously
- falsch interpretierento interpret erroneously
Greek παρερμηνεύω
- παρερμηνεύω (parerminévo)to interpret erroneously
Hungarian félreértelmez
- félreértelmezto interpret erroneously
Norwegian feiltolke
- feiltolketo interpret erroneously
Russian неправильно понять, ошибочно истолковать
- неправильно понять (nepravilʹno ponjatʹ)to interpret erroneously
- ошибочно истолковать (ošibočno istolkovatʹ)to interpret erroneously
Swedish misstolka, feltolka
- misstolkato interpret erroneously
- feltolkato interpret erroneously
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
misconstrue. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misconstrue
“misconstrue.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misconstrue. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misconstrue,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misconstrue.
Source: misconstrue on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.