architecture

American  

[ahr-ki-tek-cher] / ˈɑr kɪˌtɛk tʃər /

noun

1. the profession of designing buildings, open areas, communities, and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. Architecture often includes design or selection of furnishings and decorations, supervision of construction work, and the examination, restoration, or remodeling of existing buildings.

2. the character or style of building.

   the architecture of Paris; Romanesque architecture.

3. the action or process of building; construction.

4. the result or product of architectural work, as a building.

5. buildings collectively.

6. Computers. a fundamental underlying design of computer hardware, software, or both.

7. the structure of anything.

   the architecture of a novel.

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architecture British  

/ ˈɑːkɪˌtɛktʃə /

noun

1. the art and science of designing and superintending the erection of buildings and similar structures

2. a style of building or structure

   Gothic architecture

3. buildings or structures collectively

4. the structure or design of anything

   the architecture of the universe

5. the internal organization of a computer's components with particular reference to the way in which data is transmitted

6. the arrangement of the various devices in a complete computer system or network

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Other Word Forms

• architectural adjective
• architecturally adverb

Etymology

Origin of architecture

First recorded in 1555–65; from Middle French, from Latin architectūra; architect, -ure

Example Sentences

Proton VPN uses Secure Core architecture, a feature that routes traffic through multiple servers for enhanced privacy protection.

From Salon

The moat, as Morgan Stanley describes it, is partly due to the architecture’s complexity.

From Barron's

“The pool is being completely replaced. It leaks like a sieve,” said Stephanie Kingsnorth, principal of the architecture firm Perkins Eastman, addressing about 50 community members in a room next to the park’s visitor center.

From Los Angeles Times

The regulatory architecture is vast, fragmented and largely incoherent.

From The Wall Street Journal

"Our new catalyst has a single atom architecture, in which isolated active metal atoms are anchored on the surface of a specially developed support material," Pérez-Ramírez explains.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• building
• construction
• engineering
• planning