reconstruct
/'ri:kən'strʌk/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To build or create again something that has been damaged or destroyed: The core meaning involves physically rebuilding a structure or object.
- To form a picture or model of a past event, situation, or object by using available evidence: This involves mentally or theoretically re-creating something that no longer exists in its original form.
- To reorganize or reform a system, institution, or way of thinking: This meaning applies to abstract concepts like societies, economies, or ideas.
Examples of Usage
- Verb:
- After the earthquake, the city worked to reconstruct the damaged bridges.
- Historians reconstruct ancient diets by studying fossilized teeth and garbage pits.
- The country sought to reconstruct its economy after the war.
Advanced Usage
- "to reconstruct oneself": to fundamentally change or reform one's character, life, or career.
- After his illness, he had to reconstruct himself both physically and mentally.
- In legal or investigative contexts, "reconstruct" often refers to recreating the sequence of events of a crime or accident.
- Detectives asked the witness to help reconstruct the scene of the robbery.
Variants and Related Words
- Reconstruction (n): The action or process of reconstructing.
- The post-war reconstruction took decades.
- Reconstructive (adj): Relating to the rebuilding of something, often used in medical contexts (e.g., reconstructive surgery).
- She underwent reconstructive surgery on her knee.
Synonyms
- Rebuild: To build again (very close synonym, often interchangeable for physical structures).
- Restore: To return something to its original state (emphasizes returning to a former condition).
- Remodel: To change the structure or form of something (often implies alteration, not just recreation).
- Reassemble: To fit the parts of something together again (emphasizes putting pieces back together).
Related Phrasal Verbs
(Note: "Reconstruct" is not commonly used with particles to form standard phrasal verbs. The action is typically expressed by the verb alone or with a preposition like "from.") - The concept is often expressed as "reconstruct from (evidence/fragments)." - The paleontologist reconstructed the dinosaur skeleton from the scattered bones.
Related Idioms
- Piece together/reconstruct the puzzle: To figure out a complex situation by assembling various pieces of information.
- Investigators are trying to reconstruct the puzzle of what happened that night.
Verb
- do over, as of (part of) a house
- We are remodeling these rooms
- return to its original or usable and functioning condition
- restore the forest to its original pristine condition
- cause somebody to adapt or reform socially or politically
- build again
- The house was rebuild after it was hit by a bomb
- reassemble mentally
- reconstruct the events of 20 years ago