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

• 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

In 1966, he organized an academic conference that introduced Jacques Derrida and other French critics to the nation, along with the new academic concept of deconstructionism.

From Washington Post • Jul. 26, 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

I, however, am the Michael Moore of deconstructionism.

From Time Magazine Archive