reconstruct
Americanverb (used with object)
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to construct again; rebuild; make over.
The church was burned in 1895, but reconstructed in 1897.
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to re-create in the mind from given or available information.
The first step in solving this crime was to reconstruct the events of the murder.
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to cause to abandon earlier positions, beliefs, etc.; cause to adjust to new or current situations.
He's a reconstructed man with progressive views on gender equality.
The protesters and resisters refuse to be reconstructed.
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Historical Linguistics. to arrive at (hypothetical earlier forms of words, phonemic systems, etc.) by comparison of data from a later language or group of related languages.
verb
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to construct or form again; rebuild
to reconstruct a Greek vase from fragments
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to form a picture of (a crime, past event, etc) by piecing together evidence or acting out a version of what might have taken place
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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reconstructernoun
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reconstructionnoun
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reconstructornoun
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reconstructibleadjective
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reconstructiveadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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reconstructsimple
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reconstructssimple
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have reconstructedperfect
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has reconstructedperfect
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am reconstructingprogressive
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are reconstructingprogressive
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is reconstructingprogressive
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have been reconstructingperfect progressive
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has been reconstructingperfect progressive
Past
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reconstructedsimple
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had reconstructedperfect
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was reconstructingprogressive
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were reconstructingprogressive
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had been reconstructingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of reconstruct
Explanation
If the verb to "construct" means to build something, then to reconstruct means to build it again. You can reconstruct a building, a city, or even an idea. If a house is destroyed in a fire, earthquake, or flood, you might try to reconstruct it — or you could build a totally new one. Either way, though, you could still be said to be reconstructing your home. Some buildings were destroyed so long ago that we don't know what they really looked like. The same can be said for whole cities and cultures. Still, archeologists try to reconstruct how those cities and cultures appeared at the time that they were flourishing. Linguists reconstruct long-dead languages. Detectives try to reconstruct crimes in order to figure out who committed them.
Vocabulary lists containing reconstruct
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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:
The results could give archaeologists a powerful new way to reconstruct when people entered decorated caves, made paintings, and returned to alter or add to them.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
And I think that trying to reconstruct that experience almost takes away the mystery of it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The returning signals provide the information needed to reconstruct a detailed map of the environment.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
A matching signal might reveal where certain forms of dust are being produced and help researchers reconstruct the physical and chemical processes occurring there.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
In the 1950s, Ed Lewis, a fruit fly geneticist at Caltech, began to reconstruct the formation of fruit fly embryos.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In “The First Emancipation: The Forgotten History of Abolition in Revolutionary France,” Jeremy D. Popkin, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Kentucky, reconstructs the intricate political debates that preceded the 1794 law.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
On Earth, archaeology reconstructs the past by studying ancient artifacts and remains.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2026
A helpful digital “fly through” video reconstructs the vast fortress, elaborately decorated with brightly colored, often patterned murals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2025
In three-and-a-half hours and for less than $10 million, Corbet reconstructs post-war America from the ground up, proving his sweeping artistic vision to be just as impressive as László Tóth’s.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2025
The body dissolves, and is transformed; the soul transmigrates, and, drawing round itself atom to atom, it reconstructs for itself a new body.
From The Heroic Enthusiasts (Gli Eroici Furori) Part the First An Ethical Poem by Williams, L.
Writing in the Yale Law Journal, Cherneff reconstructed the history of In re Turner, an 1867 decision by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase that helped end the re-enslavement of Black children through involuntary “apprenticeships.”
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
In recent years, a local group of volunteers working under the name Maine’s First Ship reconstructed the Virginia piece by piece using historical materials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
During the 1950s and 1960s, the team reconstructed a monumental bath gymnasium complex and the largest synagogue in the ancient world.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026
The researchers then reconstructed the quantum states directly.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 15, 2026
Even with a reconstructed jaw, her father still slurred his words a little, but Siobhan had grown to understand his speech.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
The actor leads a captivating series on National Geographic about the ancient city and its inhabitants, reconstructing the lives of those who might have escaped the lethal effects of Mount Vesuvius’s eruption.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
They then spent a further three years documenting and reconstructing the T. rex back in the lab.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
By reconstructing how supernova occurrence rates vary with the ages of stars in different galaxies, the model helps scientists investigate long standing questions about the systems that eventually produce these explosions.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 29, 2026
In other words, to view a Shih piece is to collaborate with the artist on reconstructing or, in some cases, reclaiming an understanding of place and self.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Isabel Wilkerson performed a different but equally arduous feat of reporting: reconstructing a life.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
