Rebuild

How to spell rebuild

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rebuild

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rebuild mean?

1. verbTo construct something again after it has been damaged, demolished, or taken apart.

Rebuild in a sentence

• The council agreed to rebuild the bridge after the flood.

• It took the family two years to rebuild their home from the foundations up.

Where does rebuild come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a straightforward compound of the prefix 're-', from Latin meaning 'again' or 'back', attached to the native English verb 'build'. The verb 'build' itself is genuinely old, descending from the Old English 'byldan', which meant to construct a dwelling and was rooted in 'bold', an Old English word for a house or building. While 'build' is solidly Germanic in its bones, the prefix 're-' is a Latin element that English absorbed so thoroughly through French and direct borrowing that it now attaches freely to native words. 'Rebuild' emerged as the practical word for putting something back together or constructing it anew, and its spelling is reassuringly regular: the silent letter at the end of 'build' (the 'u' tucked before the 'i') is the only real trap, inherited directly from the parent verb.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• build (to construct)