unreconstructed
adjective
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The reorganization and reestablishment of the seceded states in the Union after the American Civil War is referred to as the Reconstruction. The earliest known use of unreconstructed is by a writer for the Boston, Massachusetts, publication The Liberator, who in 1865 used it to describe Southerners who were not reconciled to the outcome of the War and the changes enacted during the Reconstruction. The word immediately caught on and has been used to refer to intransigent or dyed-in-the-wool partisans ever since. The word is also used outside of political and social contexts, as when a person is described as "an unreconstructed rocker" or "an unreconstructed romantic."
Examples of unreconstructed in a Sentence
Tyler Austin Harper, The Atlantic, 26 Nov. 2025
An uncle of mine who served with distinction in the field artillery on the Western Front was in most things an unreconstructed New Dealer.
—George Liebmann, Baltimore Sun, 21 May 2025
And not just those unreconstructed Confederates who write books quoting each other in their echo chambers suggesting the War wasn't about slavery but about economics and states' rights.
—arkansasonline.com, 12 Feb. 2025
Thousands of anticommunist agitators, professional patriots, and unreconstructed confederates gathered to protest and disrupt.
—Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for unreconstructed
Cite this Entry
“Unreconstructed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unreconstructed. Accessed 7 Dec. 2025.
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