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Webster 1913 Edition

Structure

Struc′ture

,
Noun.
[L.
structura
, from
struere
,
structum
, to arrange, build, construct; perhaps akin to E.
strew
: cf. F.
structure
. Cf.
Construe
,
Destroy
,
Instrument
,
Obstruct
.]
1.
The act of building; the practice of erecting buildings; construction.
[R.]
His son builds on, and never is content
Till the last farthing is in
structure
spent.
J. Dryden, Jr.
2.
Manner of building; form; make; construction.
Want of insight into the
structure
and constitution of the terraqueous globe.
Woodward.
3.
Arrangement of parts, of organs, or of constituent particles, in a substance or body;
as, the
structure
of a rock or a mineral; the
structure
of a sentence
.
It [basalt] has often a prismatic
structure
.
Dana.
4.
(Biol.)
Manner of organization; the arrangement of the different tissues or parts of animal and vegetable organisms;
as, organic
structure
, or the
structure
of animals and plants; cellular
structure
.
5.
That which is built; a building; esp., a building of some size or magnificence; an edifice.
There stands a
structure
of majestic frame.
Pope.
Columnar structure
.
See under
Columnar
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Structure

STRUCTURE

,
Noun.
[L., to set or lay.]
1.
Act of building; practice of erecting buildings.
His son builds on and never is content, till the last farthing is in structure spent.
2.
Manner of building; form; make; construction; as the want of insight into the structure and constitution of the terraqueous globe.
3.
Manner of organization of animals and vegetables, &c.
4.
A building of any kind, but chiefly a building of some size or of magnificence; an edifice. The iron bridge over the Seine in Paris, is a beautiful structure.
There stands a structure of majestic frame.
5.
In mineralogy, the particular arrangement of the integrant particles or molecules of a mineral.

Definition 2024

structure

structure

See also: structuré

English

Noun

structure ‎(countable and uncountable, plural structures)

  1. A cohesive whole built up of distinct parts.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess:
      The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
    The birds had built an amazing structure out of sticks and various discarded items.
  2. The underlying shape of a solid.
    He studied the structure of her face.
  3. The overall form or organization of something.
    • 2012 March 1, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106:
      Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
    The structure of a sentence.
    The structure of the society was still a mystery.
  4. A set of rules defining behaviour.
    For some, the structure of school life was oppressive.
  5. (computing)  Several pieces of data treated as a unit.
    This structure contains both date and timezone information.
  6. (fishing, uncountable)  Underwater terrain or objects (such as a dead tree or a submerged car) that tend to attract fish
    There's lots of structure to be fished along the west shore of the lake; the impoundment submerged a town there when it was built.
  7. A body, such as a political party, with a cohesive purpose or outlook.
    The South African leader went off to consult with the structures.
  8. (logic)  A set along with a collection of finitary functions and relations.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

structure ‎(third-person singular simple present structures, present participle structuring, simple past and past participle structured)

  1. (transitive) To give structure to; to arrange.
    I'm trying to structure my time better so I'm not always late.
    I've structured the deal to limit the amount of money we can lose.

Translations

Related terms

French

Etymology

From Latin structura

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /stʁyktyʁ/
  • Rhymes: -yʁ
  • Homophone: structures

Noun

structure f ‎(plural structures)

  1. structure
    Le plain-chant est la paraphrase aérienne et mouvante de l'immobile structure des cathédrales. (Huysmans, En route, 1895)

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

References

Latin

Participle

structūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of structūrus

Etymology

From Middle French structure, from Latin structura ‎(“a fitting together, adjustment, building, erection, a building, edifice, structure”), from struere, past participle structus ‎(“pile up, arrange, assemble, build”). Compare construct, instruct, destroy, etc.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈstɹʌktʃə(ɹ)/, [ˈstɹɐktʃə(ɹ)]
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈstɹʌktʃɚ/

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