Hypertext Webster Gateway: "structure"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Structure \Struc"ture\, n. [L. structura, from struere,
structum, to arrange, build, construct; perhaps akin to E.
strew: cf. F. structure. Cf. {Construe}, {Destroy},
{Instrument}, {Obstruct}.]
1. The act of building; the practice of erecting buildings;
construction. [R.]
His son builds on, and never is content Till the
last farthing is in structure spent. --J. Dryden,
Jr.
2. Manner of building; form; make; construction.
Want of insight into the structure and constitution
of the terraqueous globe. --Woodward.
3. Arrangement of parts, of organs, or of constituent
particles, in a substance or body; as, the structure of a
rock or a mineral; the structure of a sentence.
It [basalt] has often a prismatic structure. --Dana.
4. (Biol.) Manner of organization; the arrangement of the
different tissues or parts of animal and vegetable
organisms; as, organic structure, or the structure of
animals and plants; cellular structure.
5. That which is built; a building; esp., a building of some
size or magnificence; an edifice.
There stands a structure of majestic frame. --Pope.
{Columnar structure}. See under {Columnar}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
structure
n 1: a thing constructed; a complex construction or entity; "the
structure consisted of a series of arches"; "she wore
her hair in an amazing construction of whirls and
ribbons" [syn: {construction}]
2: the manner of construction of something and the arrangement
of its parts; "artists must study the structure of the
human body"; "the structure of the benzene molecule"
3: the complex composition of knowledge as elements and their
combinations; "his lectures have no structure"
4: a particular complex anatomical structure; "he has good bone
structure" [syn: {anatomical structure}, {complex body
part}, {bodily structure}, {body structure}]
5: the people in a society considered as a system organized by
a characteristic pattern of relationships; "the social
organization of England and America is very different";
"sociologists have studied the changing structure of the
family" [syn: {social organization}, {social structure}, {social
system}]
v : give a structure to; "I need to structure my days"
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