Obstruction

How to spell obstruction

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce obstruction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does obstruction mean?

1. nounSomething that blocks a passage or way, or the act of blocking it.
2. nounThe deliberate act of hindering or preventing something from proceeding, especially a legal or official process.

Obstruction in a sentence

• The surgeon found an obstruction in the patient's airway.

• He was charged with obstruction of justice after destroying the documents.

• A fallen tree caused an obstruction on the motorway for several hours.

• The committee accused the minister of deliberate obstruction of the inquiry.

Where does obstruction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin obstructionem, the noun form of the verb obstruere, which meant 'to build up against' or 'to block by piling things in the way'. That verb was assembled from the prefix ob-, meaning 'against' or 'in the path of', and struere, meaning 'to pile up, arrange, or build'. The same struere root quietly powers a whole family of English words, including 'structure', 'construct', 'instruct', and 'destruction', all of which involve building or arranging something. English took obstruction in during the late 1500s, keeping the literal Latin sense of a physical blockage as well as developing the figurative sense of hindering progress. Remembering the buried 'struct' (as in structure) is the surest way to keep the spelling steady, since the trickiest part is the unstressed 'ob-' and the '-tion' ending.

How the word is built

• ob- (against, in the way)
• struct (from struere: to pile up, build)
• -ion (noun of action)