deconstructionism

American  

[dee-kuhn-struhk-shuh-niz-uhm] / ˌdi kənˈstrʌk ʃəˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. the theory or principles of a philosophical and critical movement that questions all traditional assumptions about the ability of language to represent reality and emphasizes that a text has no stable reference or meaning.

2. the theory or principles of a critical movement that questions forms, hierarchies, and assumptions that are thought to be fixed because of the language traditionally used to describe those forms, hierarchies, and assumptions.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• deconstructionist
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of deconstructionism

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

Or they retreated, following Macdonald’s advice, into social irrelevance by adopting dead-end pseudo-philosophies like deconstructionism.

From Salon • Apr. 19, 2026

With other colleagues, he resisted diversifying the English department’s faculty and curriculum, according to the Columbia notice, and generally opposed emerging literary schools such as feminism, deconstructionism and post-colonialism.

From Washington Post • Mar. 10, 2019

"Yet this is an architecture as rich in ambiguities and multivalences as anything proposed by postmodernism or deconstructionism."

From Seattle Times • Jul. 6, 2011

Heather Mac Donald once studied literary deconstructionism and clerked for a left-wing judge.

From New York Times • Feb. 19, 2011

Even if such spiritual deconstructionism is true, some scientists--to say nothing of most theologians--think it takes you only so far, particularly when it comes to trying to determine the very existence of God.

From Time Magazine Archive