ENGLISH
REFERENCE

construction

n. C / U
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford US //kənˈstɹəkʃən// UK //kənstɹˈʌkʃən// con·struc·tion General-service

n. the process of building something large, like a house or a bridge. It can also mean the way a sentence or an idea is put together.

n. the process or act of building or assembling a structure; also refers to the specific arrangement of words in a sentence or the interpretation of a legal text.


SIMPLE

The new hospital is currently under construction.

CONTEXTUAL

The city council halted the construction of the new bridge due to environmental concerns and budget overruns.

COMPLEX

While the physical construction of the gallery was impressive, critics focused more on the linguistic construction of the artist's manifesto, which they found unnecessarily opaque.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

From Middle English construccioun, construction, from Old French construction, from Latin cōnstructiō, from cōnstruere. Morphologically construct + -ion.

Usage

Uncountable when referring to the industry or the act of building; countable when referring to a specific grammatical structure or a complex interpretation.

Pitfall

The construction of the house is finish.The construction of the house is finished.Learners often use the base form of the verb after 'is' instead of the past participle when describing the state of a project.

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