constructivism

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
English constructive
Proto-Indo-European *-id-
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti
Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō
Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)
Proto-Indo-European *-mos
Proto-Indo-European *-mós
Ancient Greek -μός (-mós)
Ancient Greek -ῐσμός (-ĭsmós)der.
English -ism
English constructivism

    From constructive + -ism.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /kənˈstɹʌktɪvɪzm/
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)

    Noun

    constructivism (countable and uncountable, plural constructivisms)

    1. (art) A Russian movement in modern art characterized by the creation of nonrepresentational geometric objects using industrial materials.
      • 2009 February 10, “Rodchenko and Popova at Tate Modern”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 October 2026:
        Constructivism wasn't just Russian state propaganda - its blend of optimism and pragmatism and its emphasis on equality and the collective prefigured key developments in 20th-century art.
      • 2009 March 19, William Haseltine, “George Costakis and the Survival of Russian Art”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic‎[2], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 September 2025:
        Art in the first half of the 20th century was powerfully shaped by Constructivism and Supremicism in the East and by Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism in the West.
    2. (architecture) A style of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s.
      • 2015 May 5, Athlyn Cathcart-Keays, “Moscow's Narkomfin building: Soviet blueprint for collective living – a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 29”, in The Guardian‎[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 October 2026:
        Many masterpieces of Soviet constructivism are now crumbling under capitalism, replaced by pastiche architecture or pale replicas of former buildings.
    3. (mathematics) A philosophy that asserts the need to construct a mathematical object to prove it exists.
      • 1973, Nel Noddings, Constructivism as a Base for a Theory of Teaching, Stanford University, page 17:
        At bottom, constructivism opposes axiomatization as the fundamental idea in mathematics.
    4. (philosophy, psychology, education) A psychological epistemology which argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences.
      • 2000, Donald Kiraly, A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education, St. Jerome Publishing, p. 18:
        There is no single theory of constructivism. In fact, there are many shades and varieties of constructivism spanning a range of perspectives. There is also no single individual who can be identified as the founder of constructivism. In fact, rather than tracing a linear development along one line of philosophical thought, constructivism seems to circumscribe a set of thinkers, theories and approaches that spring from a plethora of historical and cultural origins.
      • 2001, George J. Klir, Facets of Systems Science‎[4]:
        According to constructivism, all systems are artificial abstractions. They are not made by nature and presented to use to be discovered, but we construct them by our perceptual and mental capabilities with the domain of our experiences.
      • 2012 December 26, Emily Chertoff, “The Great Montessori Schism”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic‎[5], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 July 2026:
        Montessori subscribed to constructivism, a theory of education that says students do better if we let them piece together how the world works by moving through it themselves than if we deliver knowledge top-down.
    5. (international relations) A school of studying international relations that prioritises the way the behaviour of polities and agents in geopolitics is constructed by norms and identities.

    Derived terms

    Translations

    See also

    Further reading

    Romanian

    Etymology

      Borrowed from French constructivisme. By surface analysis, constructiv + -ism.

      Noun

      constructivism n (uncountable)

      1. constructivism

      Declension

      singular only indefinite definite
      nominative-accusative constructivism constructivismul
      genitive-dative constructivism constructivismului
      vocative constructivismule
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