construction

American  

[kuhn-struhk-shuhn] / kənˈstrʌk ʃən /

noun

• constructions
  plural

1. the act or art of constructing.

2. the way in which a thing is constructed.

   a building of solid construction.

3. something that is constructed; a structure.

4. the occupation or industry of building.

   He works in construction.

5. Grammar.

   1. the arrangement of two or more forms in a grammatical unit. Constructions involving bound forms are often called morphological, as the bound forms fif- and -teen. Those involving only free forms are often called syntactic, as the good man, in the house.

   2. a word or phrase consisting of two or more forms arranged in a particular way.

   3. a group of words or morphemes for which there is a rule in some part of the grammar.

6. explanation or interpretation, as of a law, a text, or an action.

   Synonyms:

   story, rendition, version

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construction British  

/ kənˈstrʌkʃən /

noun

1. the process or act of constructing or manner in which a thing is constructed

2. the thing constructed; a structure

3. 1. the business or work of building dwellings, offices, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      a construction site

4. an interpretation or explanation of a law, text, action, etc

   they put a sympathetic construction on her behaviour

5. grammar a group of words that together make up one of the constituents into which a sentence may be analysed; a phrase or clause

6. geometry a drawing of a line, angle, or figure satisfying certain conditions, used in solving a problem or proving a theorem

7. an abstract work of art in three dimensions or relief See also constructivism

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preconstruction
  noun
• constructional
  adjective
• constructionally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• constructions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of construction

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin constrūctiōn-, stem of constrūctiō “placement together, building,” from constrūct(us) “put together” ( see construct) + -iō -ion

Explanation

The creation or building of something is construction. Depending on your budget, if you are building a new house, you will get the construction of a castle, a house, a cottage, or a shack. The word construction has its roots in the Latin word construere, which itself has roots in com-, meaning "together," and struere meaning "to pile up." In addition to the building of property, the noun construction also refers to the building trade itself. If you work for a company that builds things — from offices to houses and bridges to dams — you work in construction, whether you are a carpenter at the work site or the secretary who schedules the jobs.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

construction constructions

The Fed awarded more than $2 billion in construction work without a guaranteed maximum price.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026

Production in the construction sector, which expanded over nine percent in August, was being supported by public contracts for upgrading infrastructure, it noted.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

Constellation aims to deliver the first uprate project in 2028, while construction on the others continues through 2032 or 2033, Dominguez said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Becerra’s father later began a construction career that lasted 30 years, while his mother worked as a clerical worker and later purchased rental properties.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

"Guiteau never had anything to do with the construction of his brain," Scoville said.

From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow

The clouds were made in the Netherlands by a firm with a history of building steel ship hulls that now specializes in building complex steel constructions like the clouds using digital data.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

The state also requires home hardening measures for the structure itself — from covering vents with a mesh to block embers from entering to using fire-resistant building materials — for all new constructions since 2008.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Now, the world’s biggest performance brands and a wave of smaller challengers are betting on a new approach: “active cooling technology”—fabrics, constructions and materials designed to lower the temperature at the skin’s surface.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

"We now see that end of these monumental constructions coincides with the disappearance of the population that built them," Seersholm said.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 2026

The jaws of the widest C are 3,950 feet apart, an expanse so big that scientists did not recognize the ridges as constructions until they took aerial photographs of the site in the 1950s.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• development
• manufacture
• plan
• planning
• structure
• system