Constructive
Constructive adjective - Constructing or tending to construct or improve or promote development.
Usage example: constructive criticism
Destructive
Destructive adjective - Causing or tending to cause destruction.
Usage example: the destructive storm blew down trees all over town, and blew the roof off our neighbor's house
Constructive is an antonym for destructive.
Both words in one sentence
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Whether a being will ascend towards one or the other appears to depend on whether its acts (or that of the peoples connected to it) are more constructive or destructive.
Source: Literature / Perry Rhodan -
The fire giants: any action they take, constructive or destructive, according to their religion, brings the day closer when their God uses the Sword of Twilight to smash reality, causing the world to never have existed.
Source: Tabletop Game / Pathfinder -
Lasers, for example, will simply pass through each other unimpeded, although their point of intersection may experience any constructive or destructive interference between the two beams depending on the characteristics (wavelength and phase) of the lasers involved.
Source: Beam-O-War
Cite this Source
Destructive and Constructive. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/constructive/destructive
Constructive & Destructive. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/constructive/destructive>.
Destructive or Constructive. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/constructive/destructive.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "constructive" and "destructive" have occurred on timeline