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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

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 The official end of Reconstruction came in 1877, when the last troops were withdrawn from the South.

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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

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

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

What will a new Reconstruction and a Marshall Plan for American democracy look like?

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026

The Black struggle for voting rights perhaps best exemplifies how Black activism was critical to the formation of the Reconstruction Amendments.

From Slate • Apr. 15, 2026

As Andrew said in his note to Epstein, it's a "confidential brief produced by the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province".

From BBC • Feb. 11, 2026

Teach slavery and Reconstruction with the same seriousness as the Constitution.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026

Congress, which during Reconstruction had been quick to enact measures of legal, social, and economic freedom for blacks, just as quickly began to roll them back.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

Related Words

• rehabilitation
• reorganization
• repair
• restoration