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The above comes from a Wikipedia article:

It was constructed of woven layers of curtains and wood, and richly furnished with valuable materials taken from Egypt.

I am wondering if "constructed of" means the same thing as "constructed with". I am not sure if I am crazy, but it sounds wrong. Is it? What do you think about it?

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Compare these two sentences:

My house was built with (using / by) a hammer, saw, and level.
My house was built from (of / out of) wood, metal, and insulation.

I used built rather than constructed because the distinction is more easily seen with the different verb, but the principle is the same.

Typically, when you build or construct something with something, the preposition with refers to the tools that you used; when you build or construct something from something, the preposition from refers to the materials out of which it's made.

Although it's likely you could determine the meaning of the sentence from context, and it's possible that with could be taken in the same sense as of, the two are not commonly used synonymously in this construction.

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  • Does built of means that the materials enumerated are all of the materials that were used?
    – user88427
    Commented Feb 15, 2019 at 23:31
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    @repomonster Most likely not. A lot more material goes into construction that what would commonly be listed. But it's the main materials that are given. In the fairy tale The Three Little Pigs, I'm sure that the houses were built of more than just straw, sticks, and brick. (The brick house would have also been built of mortar, for instance.)
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Feb 16, 2019 at 3:27
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I am not a native speaker, but i am going to give my response, though.

There nothing wrong with using of with constructed.

Basically, if you look this word up on an OXFORD dictionary, you will definitely see “of” follow construct.

Both work, but the meaning is a bit slightly different to me.

If you say:

  • your rooms is constructed of wood.

Here, it gives the meaning that you whole entire room is made out of wood.

But, if you say that

  • your room is constructed with wood.

Here, i can understand that some parts of your room are wooden.

Honestly though, i will be waiting for a native speaker to confirm or refute what has been explained in my answer.

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