constitute
Americanverb (used with object)
-
constitutes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
constituted,
past participle, past
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constituting
present participle
-
to compose; form.
mortar constituted of lime and sand.
-
to appoint to an office or function; make or create.
He was constituted treasurer.
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to establish (laws, an institution, etc.).
- Synonyms:
- commission, institute
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to give legal form to (an assembly, court, etc.).
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to create or be tantamount to.
Imports constitute a challenge to local goods.
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Archaic. to set or place.
verb
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to make up; form; compose
the people who constitute a jury
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to appoint to an office or function
a legally constituted officer
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to set up (a school or other institution) formally; found
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law to give legal form to (a court, assembly, etc)
-
obsolete law to set up or enact (a law)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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constituternoun
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constitutornoun
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preconstituteverb (used with object)
-
nonconstitutedadjective
-
self-constitutedadjective
-
self-constitutingadjective
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unconstitutedadjective
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well-constitutedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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constitutesimple
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constitutessimple
-
have constitutedperfect
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has constitutedperfect
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am constitutingprogressive
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are constitutingprogressive
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is constitutingprogressive
-
have been constitutingperfect progressive
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has been constitutingperfect progressive
Past
-
constitutedsimple
-
had constitutedperfect
-
was constitutingprogressive
-
were constitutingprogressive
-
had been constitutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of constitute
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin constitūtus, past participle of constituere “to set up, found”; see constituent
Explanation
To constitute is to make up a whole from smaller parts, or "constituents." "What constitutes a family?" means "What makes up a family?" Parents, kids, pets, and other family members constitute most people's idea of a family. The Constitution tells us what our country is all about and supposed to be made of — in other words, what constitutes the United States. This word can deal with the present or the future. The items listed in a recipe constitute what will be in a cake; later, the individual ingredients constitute the cake. Eleven players constitute a football team on the field. We can even say that abstract qualities are constituted. For example, some people think wearing sunglasses constitutes coolness. Since everything in the world is made up of other things, there's a lot of constituting going on.
Vocabulary lists containing constitute
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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The Mayflower Compact (1620)
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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.
See Examples For:
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From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
He insisted that didn't constitute a change, saying he had been "pushing on this issue" since his first day in office.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
They found that protected areas constitute 38% of the forest land but 55% of the burned area in recent fires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
The administrative claims do not themselves constitute lawsuits.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
To us, a few dozen people constitute a small, ordinary gathering, but to the Fayu it was a rare, frightening event.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
More generally, I am not sure what constitutes an emolument.
From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026
This constitutes a tax-free invisible “income” stream, which the government sometimes likes to call “owner’s equivalent rent.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Another oncologist chided the FDA for failing to establish a precise benchmark for determining what constitutes a benefit of “large magnitude.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
"It does not specify what constitutes hate speech, how it will be defined, on what criteria, or how those who produce such speech will be identified," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
They don't work on the Sabbath, but they have a fairly loose understanding of what constitutes "work" anyway and usually spend their free time dancing to jazz records.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
The judge added: "It constituted an appalling betrayal of trust."
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
It did find that the contract with ASF Solutions constituted a conflict of interest, but did not elaborate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The ANJ said the site's continued availability -- where betting odds on different events are updated in real time -- constituted advertising.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
They discussed challenging FIFA’s use of slow-motion replay to decide whether Balogun’s stepping on an opponent’s ankle constituted a red-card offense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
This hand-me-down British Sea Fury constituted a significant portion of Cuba’s entire air force.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
It found Kim guilty of manipulating the share price of Deutsch Motors, a South Korean car dealer, which it ruled a "collusive... trading act constituting market manipulation".
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
According to McKinsey & Co., the total quantum industry — computing, communications and sensing — could grow into a $97 billion market by 2035, with quantum computing constituting the lion’s share.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025
Public health experts have gone so far as to describe social isolation and loneliness as constituting a public health crisis in the United States.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2025
County are natives of Mexico and Central America, Asian immigrants make up the second-largest group, constituting 16% of people in the county without legal authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2025
The enthusiasm Olmsted had identified during his travels, though still far from constituting a tidal wave, at last seemed to begin propelling visitors to Jackson Park.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
