Construct

How to spell construct

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce construct

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does construct mean?

1. verbTo build or form something by putting parts together.
2. nounAn idea or concept built from smaller parts, especially a theoretical one.

Construct in a sentence

• verb

  The council plans to construct a new bridge across the river.

• noun

  The researchers treated motivation as a psychological construct to be measured.

• verb

  Engineers will construct the platform before the equipment arrives.

• noun

  Many argue that money is a social construct rather than a fixed reality.

Where does construct come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin construere, meaning 'to heap together' or 'to build up', formed from the prefix con-, meaning 'together', and the verb struere, meaning 'to pile up' or 'to arrange in layers'. The past participle of construere was constructus, and it is that stem that English drew on when the verb entered the language in the early 1600s with the plain sense of putting parts together to make something. The same struere root quietly supplies a whole family of English words, including 'structure', 'instruct', and 'destroy', all of which share the idea of building or arranging. The abstract noun sense, an idea assembled from simpler parts, grew later and is now common in science and psychology. Because the spelling keeps the full Latin -struct cluster intact, the trickiest part for writers is simply remembering the unstressed 'con-' rather than any silent letter.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• struct (from struere: to pile up, build)