Synonyms

reconstruct

American

[ree-kuhn-struhkt] / ˌri kənˈstrʌkt /

verb (used with object)

to construct again; rebuild; make over.

The church was burned in 1895, but reconstructed in 1897.
to re-create in the mind from given or available information.

The first step in solving this crime was to reconstruct the events of the murder.
to cause to abandon earlier positions, beliefs, etc.; cause to adjust to new or current situations.

He's a reconstructed man with progressive views on gender equality.
The protesters and resisters refuse to be reconstructed.
Historical Linguistics. to arrive at (hypothetical earlier forms of words, phonemic systems, etc.) by comparison of data from a later language or group of related languages.

reconstruct British

/ ˌriːkənˈstrʌkt /

verb

to construct or form again; rebuild

to reconstruct a Greek vase from fragments
to form a picture of (a crime, past event, etc) by piecing together evidence or acting out a version of what might have taken place

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of reconstruct

First recorded in 1760–70; re- + construct

Explanation

If the verb to "construct" means to build something, then to reconstruct means to build it again. You can reconstruct a building, a city, or even an idea. If a house is destroyed in a fire, earthquake, or flood, you might try to reconstruct it — or you could build a totally new one. Either way, though, you could still be said to be reconstructing your home. Some buildings were destroyed so long ago that we don't know what they really looked like. The same can be said for whole cities and cultures. Still, archeologists try to reconstruct how those cities and cultures appeared at the time that they were flourishing. Linguists reconstruct long-dead languages. Detectives try to reconstruct crimes in order to figure out who committed them.

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Whereas if you only have a tiny fragment, it’s like doing a crossword puzzle. You have to argue, to research, and to reconstruct the entire object.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

But they could not reconstruct with retrospective precision who stood near a location hours earlier.

From Slate • May 20, 2026

The team combined field work, seismic and satellite data to reconstruct a domino chain of events and trace the height of the wave.

From BBC • May 6, 2026

To minimize the psychological distress of the families during the burial process, Pourzahedian said he used cotton and paper to reconstruct the physical form of the victims within the shrouds.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

We can use several types of reasoning to try to reconstruct the linguistic map of East Asia as of several thousand years ago.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023