konstruieren

to construct mentally; to reason out

verb kon-stroo-EER-en Rare

Origin: from Latin construere

Also means

to build; to engineer

Usage Note

konstruieren in cognitive contexts means to mentally build an interpretation or argument: eine Theorie konstruieren. It can carry a slightly negative sense of fabricating something artificially: ein konstruiertes Argument (a contrived argument).

Examples

"Die Forscher konstruierten ein Modell, um das Verhalten zu erklären."

Natural Translation

The researchers constructed a model to explain the behaviour.

Literal Translation

The researchers constructed a model, to the behaviour to explain.

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