edifice
Americannoun
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a building, especially one of large size or imposing appearance.
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any large, complex system or organization.
noun
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a building, esp a large or imposing one
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a complex or elaborate institution or organization
Related Words
See building.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of edifice
1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin aedificium, equivalent to aedific ( āre ) to build ( see edify) + -ium -ium
Explanation
Edifice means a building, but it doesn't mean just any building. To merit being called an edifice, a building must be important. A small but elegant temple can be an edifice, and so can a towering sky scraper. The meaning of edifice has expanded to include a system of ideas — when it is complicated enough to be considered to have walls and a roof, then it is an edifice. You could say that basic facts of addition and subtraction are the foundation on which the edifice of higher math rests.
Vocabulary lists containing edifice
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The Pearl
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 2021, he established a new business, Edifice Upstate, which, according to its website, develops “affordable, ecologically sustainable” homes.
From New York Times • Apr. 21, 2022
At some point thereafter the auditorium hosted a dinner theater called the Edifice, while several businesses took up quarters in the front of building, including an ice cream parlor and a travel agency.
From Washington Times • Feb. 21, 2021
They delighted in the Edifice Complex and not the legions of sick and injured who passed through the gates.
From New York Times • Jan. 31, 2017
“It’s like a movie set,” said Michael Buckley, a principal in Edifice Real Estate Partners, which is serving as the owner’s representative for Liberty Theatres in the redevelopment.
From New York Times • Jul. 4, 2016
Yet surely there were none here, in the Council Edifice; even Matt had sensed that and consigned his dog’s fleas to the corridor.
From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
