- present participle of build.
building
Americannoun
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buildings
plural
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a relatively permanent enclosed construction over a plot of land, having a roof and usually windows and often more than one level, used for any of a wide variety of activities, as living, entertaining, or manufacturing.
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anything built or constructed.
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the act, business, or practice of constructing houses, office buildings, etc.
noun
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something built with a roof and walls, such as a house or factory
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the act, business, occupation, or art of building houses, boats, etc
Synonym Usage
Building, edifice, structure refer to something built. Building and structure may apply to either a finished or an unfinished product of construction, and carry no implications as to size or condition. Edifice is a more formal word and narrower in application, referring to a completed structure, and usually a large and imposing one. Building generally connotes a useful purpose (houses, schools, business offices, etc.); structure suggests the planning and constructive process.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of building
First recorded in 1250–1300, building is from the Middle English word byldinge. See build, -ing 1
Explanation
Building is the process of making something. Building Lego cities and towns is the favorite activity of many kids. When a construction company is building a structure like a grocery store or a school, you can say it's building a building. Anything from a small house to a skyscraper can be called a building, and both meanings of the word come from the verb build, with its Old English root byldan, "build or construct a house."
Vocabulary lists containing building
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The camera was located on a tall building on the city's west side near the coast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The first four chapters set the story up like a novel, building the characters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026
Rende's company in North Jackson, Ohio, makes and distributes aluminum building products used in fixtures like fences.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
The building also houses the John Wolfson Rare Book Room, a lecture theatre, the Weston Foyer exhibition space and a climate-controlled store for the archive.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Finally, just before dawn, when the sky is still dark, someone calls for the prisoners to make their way to the main building.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
"This can't just be a project that's about replacing one set of buildings with the other. It really is about a transformational vision of our city's pretrial justice system."
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
By 2029, potential Democratic members of the class of 2026—Roy Cooper, Mr. Brown, Mary Peltola, Josh Turek, Abdul El-Sayed and company—would all be ensconced in the Dirksen, Russell and Hart office buildings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Inspectors red-tagged eight buildings, covering 13 addresses, and yellow-tagged one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
Many people were evacuated from buildings in Panama City, about 200 kilometers from the epicenter, AFP witnessed.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
More than 11,000 buildings were leveled, including many beloved historical and cultural landmarks.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
