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• reconstruction
  reconstruction

  noun

  the act of reconstructing, rebuilding, or reassembling, or the state of being reconstructed.
• Reconstruction
  Reconstruction

  noun

  history the period after the Civil War when the South was reorganized and reintegrated into the Union (1865–77)

reconstruction

American  

[ree-kuhn-struhk-shuhn] / ˌri kənˈstrʌk ʃən /

noun

reconstructions plural

1. the act of reconstructing, rebuilding, or reassembling, or the state of being reconstructed.

   the gigantic task of reconstruction after a fire.

2. something reconstructed, rebuilt, or reassembled.

   a reconstruction of the sequence of events leading to his death; accurate reconstructions of ancient Greek buildings.

3. (initial capital letter)

   1. the process by which the states that had seceded were reorganized as part of the Union after the Civil War.

   2. the period during which this took place, 1865–77.

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Reconstruction British  

/ ˌriːkənˈstrʌkʃən /

noun

1. history the period after the Civil War when the South was reorganized and reintegrated into the Union (1865–77)

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Reconstruction Cultural  

1. The period after the Civil War in which the states formerly part of the Confederacy were brought back into the United States. During Reconstruction, the South was divided into military districts for the supervision of elections to set up new state governments. These governments often included carpetbaggers, as former officials of the Confederacy were not allowed to serve in them. The new state governments approved three amendments to the Constitution: the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery; the Fourteenth Amendment, which had a provision keeping some former supporters of the Confederacy out of public office until Congress allowed them to serve; and the Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed voting rights for black men. Once a state approved the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, it was to be readmitted to the United States and again represented in Congress. The official end of Reconstruction came in 1877, when the last troops were withdrawn from the South.

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Discover More

The program established for Reconstruction, largely the work of Republicans in the North, was far more severe than what President Abraham Lincoln had proposed before his assassination. Large numbers of white southerners resented being kept out of the “healing” of the nation that Lincoln had called for and were unwilling to give up their former authority. Ill feeling by former Confederates during Reconstruction led to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and a long-standing hatred among southerners for the Republican party.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pre-Reconstruction
  noun
• self-reconstruction
  noun
• reconstructional
  adjective
• reconstructionary
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• reconstructions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of reconstruction

First recorded in 1785–95; re- + construction

Explanation

When you put something back together or rebuild it, you do a reconstruction, like the reconstruction of a neighborhood after a flood or earthquake. Combine the prefix re-, or "again" with construction and you get a word that means "the process of putting something back together." Crime or accident reconstruction help experts figure out what really happened and possibly who is guilty or at fault, but reconstruction can also be the rebuilding of place that has been damaged, or the time of the rebuilding, like the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

reconstruction Reconstruction reconstructions

Over the next month, he underwent three surgeries, including for an infection and facial reconstruction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

After the meeting with Sharaa, Macron was scheduled to take part in an "economic forum focusing on Syria's reconstruction and strategic corridors".

From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026

Officials said they are looking into longer-term financing of reconstruction efforts through multilateral lenders and Venezuela’s oil revenues, which are being held in accounts managed by the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Yet together they produce something earlier generations of police officers could scarcely imagine, which is a detailed reconstruction of an individual’s life.

From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026

In the patriotic euphoria of the first few days, women brought their jewels to the barracks to help finance the national reconstruction.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

“When a baby is born on American soil and an American flag flies above, that baby is a birthright citizen, as the Reconstruction Republicans across the land understood,” he wrote in February.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

"Reconstruction can become a driver of economic activity, but only if there are sufficient resources, institutions capable of carrying it out, and rules that generate confidence for investment," said Oliveros.

From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026

The Reconstruction Congress wrote this rule into the 14th Amendment and said “All persons born” here are citizens by birth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

What Thomas ultimately rejects is the idea that the genius of the Reconstruction Amendments lies in their transformation of the particular suffering of Black Americans into constitutional principles that belong to everyone.

From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026

From his birth in 1868, Du Bois’ life bridged the years of Reconstruction and the twentieth-century movement.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

The results revealed that earlier reconstructions of the region's climate were likely incorrect.

From Science Daily ● May 13, 2026

"It expands the geographic frame for understanding how tuberculosis circulated in the past and highlights the value of integrating pathogen genomics into broader reconstructions of human history."

From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2026

Stadium reconstructions are "becoming more important because of the situation with television media rights", Manuel Gutierrez, vice president of European asset finance at Morningstar DBRS, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026

Unreal has since been applied to modelling architectural projects, onboard navigation for cars and reconstructions in television news reports.

From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026

In the midst of the bank reconstructions of 1893 there had been a general election, and Parliament met on 25th May.

From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland

Related Words

• rehabilitation
• reorganization
• repair
• restoration