Americans refer to “the Constitution” easily and often. What exactly they mean is not so clear much of the time.

The term is, of course, short for “The Constitution of the United States of America,” which is the title of a document – really, a collection of documents, the original text and the amendments. In some sense, Americans always have the document in the back of their minds when they invoke its title. In ceremonial contexts, and when politicians want to belabor their opponents about the latter’s supposed perfidy, “the Constitution” brings up the image of the parchment document housed in the National Archives, with “We the People” in large flowing script at the beginning and George Washington’s signature leading the rest at the end; what the document actually says between heading and signatures is often immaterial.