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constitutional

adjectivenounattested in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˌkɒn.stɪˈtjuː.ʃ(ə)n.(ə)l//
  • Canada//ˌkɑn.stɪˈt(j)u.ʃ(ə)n.(ə)l//
  • Canada//-stə-//

Belonging to, or inherent in, the constitution or structure of one's body or mind.

adjective

  1. 1

    Belonging to, or inherent in, the constitution or structure of one's body or mind.

    a constitutional infirmity constitutional ardour or dullness

  2. 2

    For the benefit of one's constitution or health.

    a constitutional walk

  3. 3

    Relating to the constitution or composition of something; essential, fundamental.

  4. 4

    Relating to a legal or political constitution (“the basic law of a nation or institution; the formal or informal system of primary principles and laws that regulates a government or other institution”).

    a constitutional right constitutional reforms

    Brexit has rocked the foundations of the nation and plunged everyone into a state of heightened constitutional anxiety.

    Some are already speculating that a constitutional crisis is brewing.

    On January 18, 1810, Republican Senator Philip Reed introduced a constitutional amendment addressing the acceptance of titles of nobility by American citizens.³¹

  5. 5

    In compliance with or valid under a legal or political constitution.

    The Supreme Court ruled against the applicant and found the statute constitutional.

    Thai charter court rules that only heterosexual marriages are constitutional: Same-sex marriage in Thailand will have to wait, as the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously today (Wednesday) that Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code, defining marriage as being a union between a man and a woman, is constitutional.

  6. 6

    Of a monarch: having a purely ceremonial role, or possessing powers limited by a constitution rather than plenary or unlimited powers.

Etymology

PIE word *ḱóm From constitution + -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Constitution is derived 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”) 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”) (from con- (prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects) + statuō (“to set up, station; to establish; to determine, fix”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”))) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or the results of actions), -tiōnem (accusative singular of -tiō).

noun

  1. 1

    Something that aids or fosters one's constitution (health): A walk that is taken regularly for good health and wellbeing.

    Moments of potential transcendence, such as an afternoon constitutional through an expressionistic wonderland recalling the Fuji Velvia vividness of What Dreams May Come, ring false in light of this project's mercenary origins.

    it was then still just possible to have a relatively normal life at the family’s 25-bedroom mansion at 145 Piccadilly, from where the baby was taken for a two-hour constitutional in her pram to Hyde Park and back every day by her governess.

    Every evening in the last years of the eighteenth century, at precisely the same hour, a solitary figure stepped forth from the most unusual house on Clapham Common to take his nightly constitutional. To avoid the prying eyes of his neighbors, he stuck to the middle of the road, never hailing those who recognized him or touching his hat to acknowledge passersby.

  2. 2

    Something that aids or fosters one's constitution (health): An act of defecation.

    morning constitutional

    For Mac McCrary and me, the Tet Offensive of 1968 begins as we sit in the outhouse. Since things are in such disorder, sergeants have been invited to use the officers' facility. We both arrive at the latrine at the same time to take a constitutional.

    The painter looked up at the ceiling. He listened to the woman's television and wondered what to do. He got out of bed. The painter started the coffee pot. He went into the bathroom to take his morning constitutional. The poor painter could still hear the woman's television. Christ, how he hated her.

Forms

plural
constitutionals
comparative
more constitutional
superlative
most constitutional
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).