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

"We hope that our results will resonate not only in pure mathematics and mathematical physics," Dajiang Wang says, "but may even inspire ideas in fields like architecture or computer graphics."

From Science Daily

It is intended that it will match the architecture of the 300-year-old house.

From BBC

The San Francisco Chronicle’s architecture critic said it resembled something “deposited by a concrete dog with square intestines.”

From The Wall Street Journal

The most productive workers in the coming decades will be those who pair deep knowledge in fields such as medicine, law, architecture and finance with a mastery of AI tools.

From MarketWatch

AI is likely to remain the key driver for tech stocks, thanks to DeepSeek’s new framework, which proposes a rethink of the fundamental architecture used to train foundational AI models.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• building
• construction
• engineering
• planning