structure

American  

[struhk-cher] / ˈstrʌk tʃər /

noun

1. mode of building, construction, or organization; arrangement of parts, elements, or constituents.

   a pyramidal structure.

   Synonyms:

   configuration, form, system

2. something built or constructed, as a building, bridge, or dam.

3. a complex system considered from the point of view of the whole rather than of any single part.

   the structure of modern science.

4. anything composed of parts arranged together in some way; an organization.

5. the relationship or organization of the component parts of a work of art or literature.

   the structure of a poem.

6. Biology. mode of organization; construction and arrangement of tissues, parts, or organs.

7. Geology.

   1. the attitude of a bed or stratum or of beds or strata of sedimentary rocks, as indicated by the dip and strike.

   2. the coarser composition of a rock, as contrasted with its texture.

8. Chemistry. the manner in which atoms in a molecule are joined to each other, especially in organic chemistry where molecular arrangement is represented by a diagram or model.

9. Sociology. social structure.

10. the pattern of organization of a language as a whole or of arrangements of linguistic units, as phonemes, morphemes or tagmemes, within larger units.

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verb (used with object)

structured, structuring

1. to give a structure, organization, or arrangement to; construct or build a systematic framework for.

   to structure a curriculum so well that a novice teacher can use it.

structure British  

/ ˈstrʌktʃə /

noun

1. a complex construction or entity

2. the arrangement and interrelationship of parts in a construction, such as a building

3. the manner of construction or organization

   the structure of society

4. biology morphology; form

5. chem the arrangement of atoms in a molecule of a chemical compound

   the structure of benzene

6. geology the way in which a mineral, rock, rock mass or stratum, etc, is made up of its component parts

7. rare the act of constructing

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verb

1. (tr) to impart a structure to

Related Words

See building.

Other Word Forms

• destructure verb (used with object)
• interstructure noun
• nonstructure noun
• prestructure verb (used with object)

Etymology

Origin of structure

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin structūra, equivalent to struct(us) (past participle of struere “to put together”) + -ūra noun suffix; -ure

Example Sentences

Perreault and her colleagues created PATHWEIGH, a structured process that helps patients and primary care teams focus directly on weight management.

From Science Daily

I like the song structure; it’s interesting and odd.

From The Wall Street Journal

The most significant challenges retirees reported were psychological and social, such as boredom, loss of structure and diminished connection.

From The Wall Street Journal

The film tracks his team’s revolutionary work predicting the structure of nearly all known proteins, a breakthrough that was later rewarded with the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

From The Wall Street Journal

This is exactly the kind of situation where the informational structure collapses, the movement gets pooled into a “bad type,” and “law and order” becomes the dominant frame.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• architecture
• arrangement
• complex
• construction
• design
• format
• formation
• framework
• network
• organization
• system