constructive.

1. Contributing to improvement or a useful solution.

2. Treated by law as existing even when not explicitly stated or directly performed.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• constructive criticism
• constructive discussion

On the page

Her constructive criticism identified both weaknesses and possible repairs.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Comparative more constructive; superlative most constructive when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, evaluation. Commonness: moderately common.