con·struc·tive

(kən-strŭk′tĭv)

adj.

1. Serving to improve or advance; helpful: constructive criticism.

2. Of or relating to construction; structural.

3. Law Inferred, imputed, or presumed from circumstances: The judge ruled that the tenant was subjected to a constructive eviction because the landlord had turned off all the utilities.

con·struc′tive·ly adv.

con·struc′tive·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

constructiveness - the quality of serving to build or improve

quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare

destructiveness - the quality of causing destruction

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He's got no - no constructiveness, but that's the egg-meat of his plan, and you must understand that I'm in with it, an' so are you.

View in context

She added: "More generally I think we have been saying that we stand ready to of course engage constructively with the UK on any concrete proposals that are compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement, so this is exactly in the spirit of constructiveness and engagement that the two will speak later in the afternoon."

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It is exactly in this spirit of constructiveness" that Juncker will speak with Johnson later today afternoon," she added.

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In the course of the negotiations, which took place in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and constructiveness, the parties discussed a wide range of issues of Turkmen-Korean relations and specified their priorities.

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Bulgaria highly values aaand supports Lebanon's efforts to bring balance, constructiveness, dialogue and seeking a peaceful resolution of problems on a regional level, the Bulgarian president said.

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Several regulated subsidiaries are rated above Southern Company reflecting the strength of their respective balance sheet, the quality of their service area and the constructiveness of their regulatory environment.

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Diko tried to introduce an element of originality and constructiveness in its Independence Day cliches, saying that "good preparation of a new round of negotiations for the Cyprob must have specific content." It has given up on the "right" content and is now happy for it to be "specific" even if it is wrong.

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Haggerty called on the Philta Board to approach Khanna's visit "with a spirit of positivity and constructiveness in an effort to resolve this unhappy situation."He said, "I remain hopeful that Philta will engage openly and constructively with the ITF (and) I confirm that we will progress our consideration of whether formal action under By-Law 7 is warranted in the coming weeks.

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Hereafter, challenges in bilateral disputes have to be addressed with full awareness of the breadth and depth of Turkish-German relations and on the basis of mutual respect, constructiveness and sincerity.

Turkish-German Challenges in the Light of German Federal Elections