Constitutional Convention

American  

noun

1. the convention in Philadelphia (1787) of representatives from each of the former Colonies, except Rhode Island, at which the Constitution of the United States was framed.

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Constitutional Convention Cultural  

1. The gathering that drafted the Constitution of the United States in 1787; all states were invited to send delegates. The convention, meeting in Philadelphia, designed a government with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. It established Congress as a lawmaking body with two houses: each state is given two representatives in the Senate, whereas representation in the House of Representatives is based on population.

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Example Sentences

At the Constitutional Convention, delegates debated whether to give Congress the power to “make war” or merely to “declare war.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 5, 2025

Benjamin Franklin, when asked what kind of government had been delivered to the new republic after the 1787 Constitutional Convention, offered a timeless warning: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

From Barron's • Oct. 24, 2025

More than a century ago, the historian Charles Beard told the story of a Constitutional Convention dominated by an “elite” group determined to protect its property and economic standing.

From Salon • Oct. 21, 2025

Benjamin Franklin urged the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, albeit unsuccessfully, to declare that “the state has the right to discourage large concentrations of property as a danger to the happiness of mankind.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 22, 2024

You have to talk about something, and money seems to have filled the conversational niche made available when people stopped discussing the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris