Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In phrenology, the tendency to construct in general, supposed not to be an independent faculty, but to take its particular direction from other faculties. It is said to be large in painters, sculptors, mechanicians, and architects. See cut under
phrenology .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Tendency or ability to form or construct.
- noun (Phren.) The faculty which enables one to construct, as in mechanical, artistic, or literary matters.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The characteristic of being
constructive . - noun
creativity , thecapacity toinvent .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the quality of serving to build or improve
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word constructiveness.
Examples
-
The instinct of constructiveness, which is one of the chief incentives to artistic creation, can find in scientific systems a satisfaction more massive than any epic poem.
Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays Bertrand Russell 1921
-
This shews that our heroine has great mechanical genius; or, to speak phrenologically, that her "constructiveness," "comparison," and "calculation" are well developed.
Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge Frances Harriet 1838
-
Perhaps both sides can agree it would be an unalloyed positive if the BHA targeted counterproductive, mechanical and needless whip use – those who habitually reach for the whip as first resort or carry on using it beyond the point of constructiveness.
In a weighing room not so far, far away – it's whip wars 2011
-
America can never leave because American troops always bring their kindness and constructiveness with them, and their rule of law.
You Can't Go Home Again Peggy Noonan 2011
-
And if the number of hits an article received was proportionate to the quality and constructiveness of its content, then it'd be problem solved.
Archive 2008-01-01 SVGL 2008
-
The journey from melodic constructiveness to harmonic oneness accrues through a process of opening upon origin, or "source," as itself the endlessly shifting, endlessly emergent containment of one thing in and as all other things.
Shelley's Golden Wind: Zen Harmonics in _A Defence of Poetry_ and 'Ode to the WestWind' 2007
-
A truly oscillatory process is one in which both dimensions of aesthetic experience — melodic constructiveness and harmonic priority — die into each other as the creative mind — a mind continuous, as Lussier affirms, with the universe — experiences its own creativity as a mode of eternal fading or dying.
Shelley's Golden Wind: Zen Harmonics in _A Defence of Poetry_ and 'Ode to the WestWind' 2007
-
The insurance industry spent months presenting an aura of "quiet constructiveness," he noted, only to launch a sudden "broadside" that rocked the Senate Finance Committee and "shocked" the administration.
Ari Melber: Rattlesnakes, Progressive Bluffing and The Public Option 2009
-
Closer in understanding to the dyadic fluctuations implicit in melodic constructiveness than to the multidirectional accommodations of codependent harmony, Hogle's concept of "motion" views Shelleyan process as "a drive toward a counterpart rising ahead of it and a harking back to a different one receding in its wake."
Shelley's Golden Wind: Zen Harmonics in _A Defence of Poetry_ and 'Ode to the WestWind' 2007
-
However, being in China for 16 months and basically seeing/reading more injustice, empty/uneducated criticisms, and helplessness than actual Truth and constructiveness mostly in form of each side bashing the other's media outlets - yes, I do have my own opinions: A press should always be free!
Archive 2008-11-01 Phil Razem 2008
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.