structure

plural structures

1. countableuncountableA cohesive whole built up of distinct parts.

   The birds had built an amazing structure out of sticks and various discarded items.

   2 more examples

   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.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Built in the 1980s, the country’s Scott Base consists of 12 structures that officials want replaced by three large, interconnected buildings, plus a separate helicopter hangar.

   2019 September 26, Gianluca Mezzofiore, “Wanted: A design team for a building project at Earth’s most remote location – Antarctica”, in CNN

   Synonyms: formation

2. countableuncountableThe underlying shape of a solid.

   He studied the structure of her face.

   Synonyms: formation

3. countableuncountableThe overall form or organization of something.

   The structure of a sentence.

   2 more examples

   The structure of the society was still a mystery.

   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.

   2012 March 28, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2013, page 106

   Synonyms: makeup, configuration, arrangement, composition, format, configuration, constitution, form

4. countableuncountableA set of rules defining behaviour.

   For some, the structure of school life was oppressive.

5. countableuncountablecomputingSeveral pieces of data treated as a unit.

   This structure contains both date and timezone information.

6. uncountablefishingUnderwater 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. countableuncountableA body, such as a political party, with a cohesive purpose or outlook.

   The South African leader went off to consult with the structures.

8. countableuncountablehuman sciencesA set along with a collection of finitary functions and relations.

present singular third person structures · participle present structuring · participle past structured · past structured

1. transitiveTo give structure to; to arrange.

   I'm trying to structure my time better so I'm not always late.

   2 more examples

   I've structured the deal to limit the amount of money we can lose.

   Next, let’s structure (42c) The girl walked. The verb walked is like slept: an intransitive verb V₀. Its dependent is a subject noun, girl. The noun girl has as its dependent the determiner the, […]

   2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Grammar” (chapter 3), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 57