CONSTITUTIONAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does constitutional mean? 

• CONSTITUTIONAL (noun)
  The noun CONSTITUTIONAL has 1 sense:

1. a regular walk taken as a form of exercise

  Familiarity information: CONSTITUTIONAL used as a noun is very rare.

• CONSTITUTIONAL (adjective)
  The adjective CONSTITUTIONAL has 4 senses:

1. of benefit to or intended to benefit your physical makeup

2. sanctioned by or consistent with or operating under the law determining the fundamental political principles of a government

3. existing as an essential constituent or characteristic

4. constitutional in the structure of something (especially your physical makeup)

  Familiarity information: CONSTITUTIONAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSTITUTIONAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A regular walk taken as a form of exercise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("constitutional" is a kind of...):

walk (the act of walking somewhere)

Derivation:

constitutionalize (take a walk for one's health or to aid digestion, as after a meal)

• CONSTITUTIONAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of benefit to or intended to benefit your physical makeup

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

constitutional walk

Pertainym:

constitution (the way in which someone or something is composed)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sanctioned by or consistent with or operating under the law determining the fundamental political principles of a government

Context example:

constitutional guarantees

Antonym:

unconstitutional (not consistent with or according to a constitution; contrary to the U.S. Constitution)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Existing as an essential constituent or characteristic

Synonyms:

built-in; constitutional; inbuilt; inherent; integral

Context example:

a constitutional inability to tell the truth

Similar:

intrinsic; intrinsical (belonging to a thing by its very nature)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Constitutional in the structure of something (especially your physical makeup)

Synonyms:

constituent; constitutional; constitutive; organic

Similar:

essential (basic and fundamental)

 Context examples 

The most frequently occurring constitutional reciprocal translocation in man is t(11;22)(q23;q11).

(Breast Cancer, 11;22 Translocation Associated Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

Affected persons may be asymptomatic or have vague constitutional or gastrointestinal symptoms.

(Dubin-Johnson Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

It just happened, however, that this hour coincided with Blessington’s constitutional, which seems to show that they were not very well acquainted with his daily routine.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Them hunters is the wicked boys,” he broke forth again, for he suffered from a constitutional plethora of speech.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Perhaps this was an agreeable excitement to the donkey-boys; or perhaps the more sagacious of the donkeys, understanding how the case stood, delighted with constitutional obstinacy in coming that way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Constitutional signs may include fever, night sweats, anorexia and cachexia.

(Paraneoplastic syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

The malady itself, one from which she had often suffered, a bilious fever—its cause therefore constitutional.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She was born to overcome an affection formed so late in life as at seventeen, and with no sentiment superior to strong esteem and lively friendship, voluntarily to give her hand to another!—and THAT other, a man who had suffered no less than herself under the event of a former attachment, whom, two years before, she had considered too old to be married,—and who still sought the constitutional safeguard of a flannel waistcoat!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Also called constitutional acupuncture.

(Korean acupuncture, NCI Dictionary)

Beginning it with that statement of universal application, which fitted every occurrence of her life, namely, that she was a mother herself, she went on to inform me that she had once seen very different days, but that at all periods of her existence she had had a constitutional objection to spies, intruders, and informers.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)