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''constitution'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260915190735-00-⌔

constitution - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

constitution (plural constitutions)

• The act, or process of setting something up, or establishing something; the composition or structure of such a thing; its makeup.
  • ✤ Synonyms: configuration, form; see also Thesaurus: composition
  • ✤ the physical constitution of the sun¹
• (government) The formal or informal system of primary principles and laws that regulates a government or other institutions.
  • 1693, Edmund Bohun, A Geographical Dictionary
    • ✤ They have in their present Constitution a Grand Council of the Nobility, a Senato, a College of Twenty six who give Audience to Ambassadors and report their Demands to the Senate, a Council of Ten; and a Triumvirate (monthly chosen by, and out of, the Ten) of three Inquisitors of State; whose Authority is so absolute, as to extend to the taking away of the Life of the Doge no less than the meanest Artisan, without acquainting the Senate, provided they all three agree in the Sentence.
  • ✤ Our constitution had begun to exist in times when statesmen were not much accustomed to frame exact definitions.²
  • ✤ After all, that would be akin to a self-coup. Apart from the traditional vision of a coup requiring a military takeover of the government, self-coups occur when governments depart from typical norms of democracy by altering election laws, calling into question election results or seeking to suspend their constitutions in order to stay in power.³
• (law) A legal document describing such a formal system.
• (Catholicism) A document issued by a religious authority serving to promulgate some particular church laws or doctrines.
• A person’s physical makeup or temperament, especially in respect of robustness.
  • ✤ He has a strong constitution, so he should make a quick recovery from the illness.
  • ✤ Our constitutions have never been enfeebled by the vices or luxuries of the old world.⁴
  • ✤ He defended himself with […] less passion than was expected from his constitution.⁵
• (dated) The general health of a person.
  • ✤ But when once his constitution began to decline, he broke very fast, and being attacked bya complication of diseases, he at length gave way to fate, May 10, 1733.⁶
  • ✤ Don Manuel de Casafonda the governor, whose countenance bespoke a constitution far gone in a decliner had thrown himself on a sopha in the last state of despair and given way to an effusion of tears:⁷
  • ✤ The physician, to gratify the apothecary, thinks himself obliged to order ten times more physic than the patient really wants, by which means he ruins his constitution, and too often his life; otherwise how is it possible an apothecarty’s bill in a fever should amount to forty, or fifty, or more pounds?⁸
  • ✤ In early life his health was infirm, and his education much interrupted in consequence; but by diligent study, as his constitution improved, he made up his lost ground, and became one of the most accomplished classical and general scholars of his time.⁹

Etymology

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From Middle English constitucioun, constitucion (“edict, law, ordinance, regulation, rule, statute; body of laws or rules, or customs; body of fundamental principles; principle or rule (of science); creation”)¹⁰ from Old French constitucion (modern French constitution), a learned borrowing from Latin cōnstitūtiō, cōnstitūtiōnem (“character, constitution, disposition, nature; definition; point in dispute; order, regulation; arrangement, system”), from cōnstituō (“to establish, set up; to confirm; to decide, resolve”). Equivalent to constitute +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌkɒn.stɪˈtjuː.ʃ(ə)n/, /-ˈtʃuː-/
• (General American) IPA: /ˌkɑn.stɪˈtu.ʃ(ə)n/
• Audio (General American): 🔊
• Rhymes: -uːʃən
• Hyphenation: con‧sti‧tu‧tion

Printed 2026-09-15.

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Footnotes

1. 1876, John Herschel, Outlines of Astronomy: ↩

2. 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter X, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC: ↩

3. 2022 January 19, Robert Alexander, “What 2020’s pro-Trump phony electors means for 2024”, in CNN ‎${}^{[1]}$, archived from the original on 16 August 2022: ↩

4. 1828, Joseph Story, Appeal to the Republic: ↩

5. 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon,, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the[Sheldonian] Theater: ↩

6. 1766 May, “The Life of Mr. Barton Booth”, in The Gentleman’s and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, page 281: ↩

7. 1792 July 18, “History of Nicholas Pedrosa”, in The Phoenix, volume 1, number 3, page 39: ↩

8. 1827 July, “On the Mal-organization of the Medical Profession, and of the Necessity of a Medical Reform”, in The Oriental Herald and Journal of General Literature, volume 14, number 43, page 79: ↩

9. 1838, George Godfrey Cunningham, Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen: ↩

10. “constitūciǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

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