misconstrue

English

Etymology

From Middle English misconstruen, equivalent to mis- +‎ construe.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪskənˈstɹuː/

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

  (file)

Verb

misconstrue (third-person singular simple present misconstrues, present participle misconstruing, simple past and past participle misconstrued)

1. (transitive) To interpret erroneously, to understand incorrectly; to misunderstand.
   • 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

Derived terms

• misconstrual
• misconstruance
• misconstruation

Translations

to interpret erroneously

• Bulgarian: разбирам погрешно (razbiram pogrešno)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誤會 / 误会 (zh) (wùhuì), 誤解 / 误解 (zh) (wùjiě)

• Dutch: misverstaan (nl), verkeerd interpreteren
• Finnish: tulkita väärin, ymmärtää väärin
• German: fehldeuten (de), falsch deuten, falsch interpretieren
• Greek: παρερμηνεύω (el) (parerminévo)
• Hungarian: félreértelmez (hu)
• Norwegian: feiltolke
• Russian: неправильно понять pf (nepravilʹno ponjatʹ), ошибочно истолковать pf (ošibočno istolkovatʹ)
• Spanish: malinterpretar (es)
• Swedish: misstolka (sv), feltolka (sv)

Anagrams

• consumerist