girder
Americannoun
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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:
Scanning the rubble, Ali caught sight of a pink, soot-covered pair of girls’ tracksuit bottoms, hanging from a steel girder jutting out of the heap.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2024
A 24-by-6-inch piece broke from the flange of one structural girder, Pihlstrom said.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2023
The rise of white collar work in downtown L.A. — and the invention of elevators and steel girder construction — also contributed to skyline development at the turn of the century, Deverell said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2022
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
And indeed, it was a giant robot pelican, three stories high, made of steel and girders, currently swallowing the white panels of the ceiling in its massive steel and girder beak.
From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness
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
"I think this bridge is absolutely key to Prague," said architect and bridge engineer, Petr Tej, running his hand over the rust-coated girders of the 123-year-old Vysehrad railway bridge.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2025
Men looking out over the city from balconies or gazing at it through the crisscrossed steel girders of a bridge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2025
Descending the network of metal girders had always reminded me of old platform videogames like Donkey Kong or BurgerTime.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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.
