deconstruction

American  

[dee-kuhn-struhk-shuhn] / ˌdi kənˈstrʌk ʃən /

noun

1. the act or practice of breaking something down into constituent parts.

   The deconstruction of complex problems into smaller issues can make them easier to tackle.

2. 1. 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. 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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deconstruction British  

/ ˌdiːkənˈstrʌkʃən /

noun

1. a technique of literary analysis that regards meaning as resulting from the differences between words rather than their reference to the things they stand for. Different meanings are discovered by taking apart the structure of the language used and exposing the assumption that words have a fixed reference point beyond themselves

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Other Word Forms

• deconstructionist
  noun
• deconstructive
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of deconstruction

de- + construction

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

deconstruction

Few revisions are as wild or expansive as Thomas Pynchon’s epic deconstruction of the lives of the 18th-century surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who laid out the markers that would divide North and South.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

For us to see it, to witness his deconstruction in that way — that’s what the ending is, not so much about the prison.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2025

The process of "careful and sensitive progressive deconstruction" will take place behind the tower's wrapping, it added.

From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2025

Whereas in the past, to tell a story of deconstruction or de-conversion you had to write a book.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024

“Risley continues her disconcerting deconstruction of perceived gender and its relationship to perceived power, especially in respect to numinous imagery,” she says.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

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