constructed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of construct.

   Engineers constructed the tunnel using enormous boring machines.

   The argument was carefully constructed to anticipate every objection.

   Note

   One regular -ed form does double duty. It is the finite past in "they constructed a bridge" and the participle after have or be: "they have constructed it," "it was constructed." It carries every sense of the verb. A geometer constructs a figure precisely with geometric tools, and a writer constructs a sentence or an argument by arranging words and ideas. The building sense is only the most literal of these.

2. 2
   adjective

   Made by people rather than occurring naturally in the world; artificial.

   Like the difference between a canal and a river: one is dug by people, the other carved by nature.

   A constructed wetland filters the runoff before it reaches the lake.

   Linguists distinguish natural languages from constructed ones like Klingon.

   Similarartificial, man-made, invented, synthetic

   Oppositenatural

   Note

   An adjective that sorts things into made or found, which is why it takes no degrees. A wetland is constructed or it is not, never "more constructed." It typically sits before nouns that would otherwise name something natural. Will Wilson's Constructed Climates (2011) describes constructed wetlands, planted with trees, that filter stormwater and cool the city. Here the participle of the verb has hardened into a label for a kind.

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