superstructure

American  

[soo-per-struhk-cher] / ˈsu pərˌstrʌk tʃər /

noun

1. the part of a building or construction entirely above its foundation or basement.

2. any structure built on something else.

3. the overlying framework or features of an organization, institution, or system, built or superimposed on a more fundamental base.

4. Nautical. any construction built above the main deck of a vessel as an upward continuation of the sides.

5. the part of a bridge that rests on the piers and abutments.

6. anything based on or rising from some foundation or basis.

   a complex ideological superstructure based on two hypotheses.

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superstructure British  

/ ˈsuːpəˌstrʌktʃə /

noun

1. the part of a building above its foundation

2. any structure or concept erected on something else

3. nautical any structure above the main deck of a ship with sides flush with the sides of the hull

4. the part of a bridge supported by the piers and abutments

5. (in Marxist theory) an edifice of interdependent agencies of the state, including legal and political institutions and ideologies, each possessing some autonomy but remaining products of the dominant mode of economic production

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Other Word Forms

• superstructural
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of superstructure

First recorded in 1635–45; super- + structure

Example Sentences

What they have lost in Height they make up in Breadth, and contrary to all Rules of Architecture widen the Foundations at the same time that they shorten the Superstructure.

From The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Addison, Joseph

Thus he has, only, made a small Mistake of the Means conducing to the end, for the End itself; and of the Superstructure for the Foundation.

From An English Garner Critical Essays & Literary Fragments by Arber, Thomas Seccombe, Professor

Every Superstructure which the Court of France built upon their first Designs, which were in themselves vicious, was suitable to its false Foundation.

From The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Addison, Joseph

Superstructure, sū-pėr-strukt′ūr, n. a structure above or on something else: anything erected on a foundation—also Superstruc′tion.—adjs.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

The subterraneous Parts of the Church are altogether as magnificent as the Superstructure; for Marble and Pictures of the Mosaic kind are its Ornaments.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume II Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels From Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

Related Words

• architecture
• construction
• home
• house
• hut