structure

See also: structuré

English

Etymology

From Middle French structure, from Latin structūra (“a fitting together, adjustment, building, erection, a building, edifice, structure”), from struere, past participle structus (“pile up, arrange, assemble, build”). Compare construct, instruct, destroy, etc.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈstɹʌktʃə(ɹ)/, [ˈstɹɐktʃə(ɹ)]
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈstɹʌktʃɚ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio(file)

Noun

structure (countable and uncountable, plural structures)

  1. A cohesive whole built up of distinct parts.
    Synonym: formation
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎:
      The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
    The birds had built an amazing structure out of sticks and various discarded items.
  2. The underlying shape of a solid.
    Synonym: formation
    He studied the structure of her face.
  3. The overall form or organization of something.
    Synonyms: makeup, configuration; see also Thesaurus:composition
    • 2012 March 1, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 106:
      Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
    The structure of a sentence.
    The structure of the society was still a mystery.
  4. A set of rules defining behaviour.
    For some, the structure of school life was oppressive.
  5. (computing)  Several pieces of data treated as a unit.
    This structure contains both date and timezone information.
  6. (fishing, uncountable)  Underwater terrain or objects (such as a dead tree or a submerged car) that tend to attract fish
    There's lots of structure to be fished along the west shore of the lake; the impoundment submerged a town there when it was built.
  7. A body, such as a political party, with a cohesive purpose or outlook.
    The South African leader went off to consult with the structures.
  8. (logic)  A set along with a collection of finitary functions and relations.

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

structure (third-person singular simple present structures, present participle structuring, simple past and past participle structured)

  1. (transitive) To give structure to; to arrange.
    I'm trying to structure my time better so I'm not always late.
    I've structured the deal to limit the amount of money we can lose.

Translations

Further reading

French

Etymology

From Latin structura

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /stʁyk.tyʁ/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -yʁ
  • Homophone: structures

Noun

structure f (plural structures)

  1. structure
    Le plain-chant est la paraphrase aérienne et mouvante de l'immobile structure des cathédrales. (Huysmans, En route, 1895)

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

References

Further reading

Latin

Participle

structūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of structūrus
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.