girder
Americannoun
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girders
plural
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a large beam, as of steel, reinforced concrete, or timber, for supporting masonry, joists, purlins, etc.
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a principal beam of wood, steel, etc., supporting the ends of joists.
noun
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a large beam, esp one made of steel, used in the construction of bridges, buildings, etc
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botany the structure composed of tissue providing mechanical support for a stem or leaf
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of girder
Explanation
A girder is any of the many beams used in buildings and bridges that provide support and actually hold them up. If you've ever seen a building going up, you know the first thing they do is put up a steel or wood skeleton that will eventually take the weight of the roof, the siding, the floors, and all the rooms inside. That skeleton is made of girders. Bridges also are made with girders, but they usually remain visible long after the steel beams in buildings have been covered by glass, brick, and wood.
Vocabulary lists containing girder
100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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Bless Me, Ultima
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"The End and the Beginning," Vocabulary from the poem
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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.
See Examples For:
When he’s up, we soar from girder to girder in a tight POV that allows us to barely make out the tips of his boots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
The Spey Viaduct, an iron girder structure near Garmouth, was built in 1886 and while no longer used for trains, was popular with cyclists and walkers.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2025
Highway 518 heading east, from Burien to the airport, will also close all weekend so crews can continue work on a girder that was damaged by a truck in 2020.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
They can also penetrate materials that x-rays cannot, enabling researchers to image the interiors of big objects such as a running engine or a steel girder.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 2, 2021
Late in the afternoon she flew to the Delhi Bridge and walked to her old scrape on the girder.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Starting in 2023, they tore out its center and moved steel girders until they resembled Swiss cheese.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
Masonry, metal girders and piles of sand are everywhere along the pavements.
From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025
Crews will install girders over the freeway to support the crossing, a vegetated bridge that will reconnect wildlife habitat, officials said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2024
Meanwhile, South King County motorists should beware of overnight shutdowns of I-5 this weekend, while contractors lift 10 bridge girders above the freeway at South 216th Street, as part of a Highway 509 extension project.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2024
The train started to slow and then sped up again, then slowed again, and black steel girders covered with years of oil and dirt became dimly visible outside the windows.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
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.
