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constructive

Syllabification: (con·struc·tive)
Pronunciation: /kənˈstrəktiv/
Translate constructive | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of constructive

adjective

  • 1serving a useful purpose; tending to build up:constructive criticism
  • 2 Law derived by inference; implied by operation of law; not obvious or explicit:constructive liability
  • 3 Mathematics relating to, based on, or denoting mathematical proofs that show how an entity may in principle be constructed or arrived at in a finite number of steps.

Derivatives

constructively

adverb

constructiveness

noun

Origin:

mid 17th century (constructive (sense 2)): from late Latin constructivus, from Latin construct- 'heaped together', from the verb construere (see construct)

constructive in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of constructive in the British & World English dictionary
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