Constitute vs Construe - What's the difference?
constitute | construe |
To cause to stand; to establish; to enact.
* Jeremy Taylor
To make up; to compose; to form.
* Johnson
To appoint, depute, or elect to an office; to make and empower.
* William Wordsworth
To interpret or explain the meaning of something.
(grammar) To analyze the grammatical structure of a clause or sentence.
*
To translate.
As verbs the difference between constitute and construe
is that constitute is to cause to stand; to establish; to enact while construe is to interpret or explain the meaning of something.As nouns the difference between constitute and construe
is that constitute is (obsolete) an established law while construe is a translation.constitute
English
(Webster 1913)Verb
(constitut)- Laws appointed and constituted by lawful authority.
- Truth and reason constitute that intellectual gold that defies destruction.
- Me didst Thou constitute a priest of thine.
Synonyms
* establish, enact * make up, compose, formExternal links
* * ----construe
English
Verb
(en-verb)- The world must construe''' according to its wits; this court must '''construe according to the law.
- , 1954
- Thus, in a sentence such as:
(113) John considers [S Fred'' to be too sure of ''himself'']
the italicised Reflexive ''himself'' can only be construed''' with ''Fred'', not with ''John'': this follows from our assumption that non-subject Reflexives must have an antecedent within their own S. Notice, however, that in a sentence such as:
(114) ''John'' seems to me [S — to have perjured ''himself'']
''himself'' must be '''construed with ''John .