Misconstrues

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Understands or explains something in a wrong or mistaken way
2. Takes the meaning of a statement or action inaccurately
3. Forms an incorrect judgment about the intention or meaning behind words or behavior

Etymology: "Misconstrues" is the third-person singular form of "misconstrue", so it simply describes someone who gets the sense of a statement or action wrong. The verb is built from "mis-", a prefix meaning wrongly or amiss, joined to "construe", which in its older sense meant to analyse or interpret the parts of a sentence, or to explain something's meaning. Put together, to misconstrue is to interpret something amiss. The root "construe" goes back to Latin "construere", meaning to pile up or put together, and its English sense of interpreting developed from the idea of arranging the parts of a text until they made sense. "Misconstrue" entered English in Middle English as "misconstruen", so the combination of the two parts is medieval, even though "construe" itself later narrowed in common use. Its meaning of misreading a person's words or deeds has stayed close to that original notion of assembling meaning from parts, only now the assembly goes wrong.

Synonyms: misinterprets, misreads, misjudges

Antonyms: understands, comprehends, interprets