structure

American  

[struhk-cher] / ˈstrʌk tʃər /

noun

• structures
  plural

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)

• structures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• structured,
  past participle,  past
• structuring
  present participle

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

Synonym Usage

See building.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• structures
  plural

Participles

• structuring
  present
• structured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• structure
  simple
• structures
  simple
• have structured
  perfect
• has structured
  perfect
• am structuring
  progressive
• are structuring
  progressive
• is structuring
  progressive
• have been structuring
  perfect progressive
• has been structuring
  perfect progressive

Past

• structured
  simple
• had structured
  perfect
• was structuring
  progressive
• were structuring
  progressive
• had been structuring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will structure
  simple
• will have structured
  perfect
• will be structuring
  progressive
• will have been structuring
  perfect progressive

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; see -ure

Explanation

A structure is something of many parts that is put together. A structure can be a skyscraper, an outhouse, your body, or a sentence. Structure is from the Latin word structura which means "a fitting together, building." Although it's certainly used to describe buildings, it can do more than that. A family's structure includes the relationship of its members, your body structure can refer to how your muscles and bones fit together. Sentence structure is how a sentence is put together, including subjects, verbs, and all that stuff English teachers love to yap about. Structure is usually a noun, but it can also be a verb meaning to impose order, like if you "structure an argument to convince your parents to let you stay out later."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

structure structures structured structuring

Understanding why requires looking at the changing internal structure of a proton as its energy increases.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

The structure is still in place,’” Bostic said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

These types of advisers have models and plans and probably already know how they’re going to structure your service before you even walk into the room.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

According to Ms. Hazrat, Aristophanes’ dots were “the first nonalphabetical marks devoted to unlocking sentence structure and therefore enabling the performance of text.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

“When’d they put this here?” he remarked, admiring the three-story structure with gracefully arched windows and a strongly detailed roofline.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

Nvidia has moved beyond earlier mechanisms for circular financing, such as making equity investments in OpenAI and other AI firms, to newer structures that make chip purchases cheaper by lowering the cost of borrowing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Premier League clubs are increasingly looking to EFL and Scottish academies for players who can be brought into their development structures, sometimes before they have established themselves in senior football.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

Hundreds of buildings — hotels, apartment blocks, mixed-use structures — collapsed or were damaged beyond repair.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

That is the term structures of the VIX futures and of the Cboe volatility indexes are sloping strongly upwards.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

They’d done their best to tear apart entire structures, things that made monsters.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

What these apps do best is lay bare the ways in which our entire economy is structured like a betting app strung together by incentive perverts.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

If so, these relics could still affect how galaxies are structured billions of years later.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

The European Union structured a €90 billion support loan for 2026-27, with €28.3 billion for defense industrial capabilities and €16.7 billion in direct budget aid for 2026 alone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The problem comes if you go straight from wearing a very structured shoe to wearing flip-flops a lot, she explains.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

In jazz, the shift in emphasis meant bigger bands comprising more structured families of instruments playing well-honed, written-out arrangements, with occasional well-defined solos emerging from the texture.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

The personal and the political are blended throughout the author’s life, but I wish she had found a more seamless strategy in structuring her book.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

“But today it has become clear that structuring the economy…can put a country on par with the superpowers.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

Prosecutors charged Thola-Duran with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, to receive and transport stolen property interstate, and to commit money laundering, and structuring transactions to avoid federal financial reporting requirements.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026

"It enables rapid structuring of hydrogels in the sub-micrometer range," she says.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026

PIH staff has begun to focus on methods of structuring aid and loans so that in the future the sick and indigent will be the primary beneficiaries.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Related Words

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