edifice
Americannoun
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a building, especially one of large size or imposing appearance.
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any large, complex system or organization.
noun
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a building, esp a large or imposing one
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a complex or elaborate institution or organization
Synonym Usage
See building.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of edifice
1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin aedificium, equivalent to aedific ( āre ) to build ( see edify) + -ium -ium
Explanation
Edifice means a building, but it doesn't mean just any building. To merit being called an edifice, a building must be important. A small but elegant temple can be an edifice, and so can a towering sky scraper. The meaning of edifice has expanded to include a system of ideas — when it is complicated enough to be considered to have walls and a roof, then it is an edifice. You could say that basic facts of addition and subtraction are the foundation on which the edifice of higher math rests.
Vocabulary lists containing edifice
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The Pearl
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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.
But it’s now clear that once you abandon all restraint and say the ends justify the means, even if there’s an argument for it, the whole legal edifice crumbles.
From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026
Thick layers of sediment rich in organic material lie beneath the volcanic edifice.
From Science Daily • Nov. 26, 2025
The Coast Guard decommissioned the St. George Reef Lighthouse in 1975, replacing the grand edifice with a floating, automated buoy light.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 26, 2025
It’s a procession of people with nothing in common save the desire to climb the steps and enter this edifice: a public library in the middle of Ohio.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 12, 2025
Every day the remarkable edifice served as a monument to her profound change in circumstances.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
