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
Related Words
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.
The 94-year-old edifice, looming majestically over Boyle Heights, stopped taking patients nearly two decades ago.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
Thick layers of sediment rich in organic material lie beneath the volcanic edifice.
From Science Daily • Nov. 26, 2025
I took the elevator back down to street level and hopped a cab toward the strangely antique edifice.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 27, 2025
The home kitchen is not a distribution center, and most container influencers lack the resources to absorb endless price increases without the whole edifice falling apart.
From Slate • Mar. 15, 2025
Hamilton's fiscal program was certainly a menacing shadow over the new federal edifice.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
