Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To form by assembling or combining parts; build.
  • transitive verb To create (an argument or a sentence, for example) by systematically arranging ideas or terms.
  • transitive verb Mathematics To draw (a geometric figure) that meets specific requirements.
  • noun Something formed or constructed from parts.
  • noun A concept, model, or schematic idea.
  • noun A concrete image or idea.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In grammar, constituting or expressing connection as governing substantive with the substantive governed.
  • noun Something constructed or created.
  • noun In compar. psychol., the mental picture answering to a real or a possible object of sense: regarded as the mental result of the action of external stimuli.
  • noun In mathematics, a configuration or surface.
  • To put together the parts of in their proper place and order; erect; build; form: as, to construct an edifice or a ship.
  • To devise and put into orderly arrangement; form by the mind; frame; fabricate; evolve the form of: as, to construct a story.
  • To interpret or understand; construe.
  • To draw, as a figure, so as to fulfil given conditions. See construction, 4.
  • To engage in or practise construction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Formed by, or relating to, construction, interpretation, or inference.
  • adjective (Heb. Gram.) that of a noun used before another which has the genitive relation to it.
  • transitive verb To put together the constituent parts of (something) in their proper place and order; to build; to form; to make.
  • transitive verb To devise; to invent; to set in order; to arrange.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something constructed from parts.
  • noun A concept or model.
  • verb transitive To build or form (something) by assembling parts.
  • verb transitive Similarly, to build (a sentence or an argument) by arranging words or ideas.
  • verb transitive (geometry) To draw (a geometric figure) by following precise specifications and using geometric tools and techniques.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances
  • verb reassemble mentally
  • verb put together out of artificial or natural components or parts
  • verb make by combining materials and parts
  • verb create by linking linguistic units
  • verb create by organizing and linking ideas, arguments, or concepts
  • verb draw with suitable instruments and under specified conditions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin cōnstruere, cōnstrūct- : com-, com- + struere, to pile up; see ster- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin construo ("I heap together, build, make, construct, connect grammatically"), from com- ("together") + struo ("I heap up, pile").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word construct.

Examples

  • The title construct is a traveling show, headed by Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), and including his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) and his various employees.

    Marshall Fine: Movie review: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus 2009

  • The title construct is a traveling show, headed by Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), and including his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) and his various employees.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2009

  • Crucially, at the heart of this construct is the Commission, comprised of appointed technocrats ruling as benign Platonic guardians, protecting the interests of all the peoples of Europe.

    Democracy or stability? Richard 2006

  • The term construct is also used to describe it, because the virus is constructed of parts and pieces of genetic code-it is a designer virus, with a particular purpose. "

    Einstein's Warning: a bioterrorist pandemic worse than a nuclear explosion 2008

  • Granted, the "36 arguments" construct is used as a structural element, incorporated literally in the form of a series of propositions and their refutations as the novel's concluding section and metaphorically by providing the novel's chapter titles, but otherwise this novel presents few surprises either formally or thematically, proceeding as a garden-variety academic satire complete with bursting egos, pretentious-sounding projects, and fierce political in-fighting.

    The New Equivocation 2010

  • Granted, the "36 arguments" construct is used as a structural element, incorporated literally in the form of a series of propositions and their refutations as the novel's concluding section and metaphorically by providing the novel's chapter titles, but otherwise this novel presents few surprises either formally or thematically, proceeding as a garden-variety academic satire complete with bursting egos, pretentious-sounding projects, and fierce political in-fighting.

    The Reading Experience 2010

  • The president of the United States, Barack Obama, and his team, since he came into office and had to deal with financial crisis, has been dealing out of an exclusively Keynesian construct, which is to say, you create, or try to create, an enormous amount of demand to raise the economy.

    High Tea 2011

  • Granted, the "36 arguments" construct is used as a structural element, incorporated literally in the form of a series of propositions and their refutations as the novel's concluding section and metaphorically by providing the novel's chapter titles, but otherwise this novel presents few surprises either formally or thematically, proceeding as a garden-variety academic satire complete with bursting egos, pretentious-sounding projects, and fierce political in-fighting.

    May 2010 2010

  • What Grodin and De Niro construct is a believable friendship that grows organically out of the story, is organic to their characters, and reveals itself to be totally complementary in every way.

    Overlooked Movie Monday: Midnight Run » Scene-Stealers 2010

  • The construct is very clever and incredibly artificial, which is pretty much the 30 Rock norm.

    Critic's Corner Thursday 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Accent the first syllable: a noun; accent the second: a verb.

    August 25, 2007