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• reconstruction
  reconstruction

  noun

  the act of reconstructing, rebuilding, or reassembling, or the state of being reconstructed.
• Reconstruction
  Reconstruction

  noun

  history the period after the Civil War when the South was reorganized and reintegrated into the Union (1865–77)

reconstruction

American  

[ree-kuhn-struhk-shuhn] / ˌri kənˈstrʌk ʃən /

noun

• reconstructions
  plural

1. the act of reconstructing, rebuilding, or reassembling, or the state of being reconstructed.

   the gigantic task of reconstruction after a fire.

2. something reconstructed, rebuilt, or reassembled.

   a reconstruction of the sequence of events leading to his death; accurate reconstructions of ancient Greek buildings.

3. (initial capital letter)

   1. the process by which the states that had seceded were reorganized as part of the Union after the Civil War.

   2. the period during which this took place, 1865–77.

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Reconstruction British  

/ ˌriːkənˈstrʌkʃən /

noun

1. history the period after the Civil War when the South was reorganized and reintegrated into the Union (1865–77)

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Reconstruction Cultural  

1. The period after the Civil War in which the states formerly part of the Confederacy were brought back into the United States. During Reconstruction, the South was divided into military districts for the supervision of elections to set up new state governments. These governments often included carpetbaggers, as former officials of the Confederacy were not allowed to serve in them. The new state governments approved three amendments to the Constitution: the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment, which had a provision keeping some former supporters of the Confederacy out of public office until Congress allowed them to serve; and the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed voting rights for black men. Once a state approved the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, it was to be readmitted to the United States and again represented in Congress. The official end of Reconstruction came in 1877, when the last troops were withdrawn from the South.

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Discover More

The program established for Reconstruction, largely the work of Republicans in the North, was far more severe than what President Abraham Lincoln had proposed before his assassination. Large numbers of white southerners resented being kept out of the “healing” of the nation that Lincoln had called for and were unwilling to give up their former authority. Ill feeling by former Confederates during Reconstruction led to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and a long-standing hatred among southerners for the Republican party.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pre-Reconstruction
  noun
• self-reconstruction
  noun
• reconstructional
  adjective
• reconstructionary
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• reconstructions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of reconstruction

First recorded in 1785–95; re- + construction

Explanation

When you put something back together or rebuild it, you do a reconstruction, like the reconstruction of a neighborhood after a flood or earthquake. Combine the prefix re-, or "again" with construction and you get a word that means "the process of putting something back together." Crime or accident reconstruction help experts figure out what really happened and possibly who is guilty or at fault, but reconstruction can also be the rebuilding of place that has been damaged, or the time of the rebuilding, like the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

reconstruction Reconstruction reconstructions

Schwartz agreed that Ukraine’s eventual reconstruction would be “a long tailwind for Poland, for sure.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026

Recalling the model airplane sets he assembled as a child, he arranged a fish, a chicken and a duck as a collection of dissected parts on a tabletop, labeling it with instructions for reconstruction.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Kathmandu has warned reconstruction costs could run into the "billions of dollars".

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

But he emphasizes that “Cuba’s reconstruction must be funded by private-sector investment and Cuban diaspora capital—inside a disciplined, legally enforceable framework from Day One.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Rashid unzipped the backpack and pulled out three of the five small pieces of broken, charred tile he’d taken from the wreckage before they began reconstruction.

From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau

"Reconstruction might take the priority over reform," he said, pointing to devastated hydropower projects, destroyed communities and the urgent need to restore livelihoods.

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

But in an “ideas forum” at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in July he sketched out some basics for what he calls “Cuba Day Zero: Stabilization, Reconstruction and the Path to Investment.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

"Reconstruction can become a driver of economic activity, but only if there are sufficient resources, institutions capable of carrying it out, and rules that generate confidence for investment," said Oliveros.

From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026

What Thomas ultimately rejects is the idea that the genius of the Reconstruction Amendments lies in their transformation of the particular suffering of Black Americans into constitutional principles that belong to everyone.

From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026

He remained in the army, helping to implement Reconstruction policies that guaranteed the black vote.

From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly

Early attempts to present real events on celluloid sometimes combined on-the-scene footage with staged reconstructions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

The team created digital reconstructions of the femurs of seven sauropod species.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026

The modeled results were then compared with geological reconstructions from the same time period, allowing the team to test how well their simulations matched real-world evidence.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 7, 2026

Stadium reconstructions are "becoming more important because of the situation with television media rights", Manuel Gutierrez, vice president of European asset finance at Morningstar DBRS, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026

There ensued widespread and continuing disorganization of the trade, which had to be met by extensive reconstructions of over-capitalized companies.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 8 "Cube" to "Daguerre, Louis" by Various

Related Words

• rehabilitation
• reorganization
• repair
• restoration