Reframe

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To alter the perspective or context through which a situation or idea is viewed
2. To shift or modify the interpretation of information or an experience by redefining its framework
3. To redefine or reposition the viewpoint used to understand or address a subject or issue

Etymology: "Reframe" is simply "frame" with the prefix "re-" added, meaning to frame again, or to put something into a new frame. The verb "frame" goes back a long way: it comes from Old English "framian," meaning to profit or be of use, and later took on the sense of building or constructing, which gave us the modern sense of a structure or border around a picture or idea. The prefix "re-" is the more ancient part. It descends from Latin "re-," meaning "back" or "again," and passed through Old French into Middle English before becoming a productive English prefix. Its ancestry reaches back to a Proto-Italic root, so English speakers have been adding it to verbs for centuries to mean doing something once more or undoing it. The sense "to shift perspective on" is a figurative extension of the physical idea of changing a frame, as when you put a picture in a different border and it looks different. The metaphor works because a frame shapes what we see inside it, so altering the frame alters the view.

Synonyms: redefine, restructure, reinterpret

Antonyms: misframe, misinterpret