struc•ture
Pronunciation: (struk'chur), [key] — n., v., -tured, -tur•ing.
—n. - mode of building, construction, or organization; arrangement of parts, elements, or constituents: a pyramidal structure.
- something built or constructed, as a building, bridge, or dam.
- a complex system considered from the point of view of the whole rather than of any single part: the structure of modern science.
- anything composed of parts arranged together in some way; an organization.
- the relationship or organization of the component parts of a work of art or literature: the structure of a poem.
- mode of organization; construction and arrangement of tissues, parts, or organs.
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- the attitude of a bed or stratum or of beds or strata of sedimentary rocks, as indicated by the dip and strike.
- the coarser composition of a rock, as contrasted with its texture.
- the manner in which atoms in a molecule are joined to each other, esp. in organic chemistry where molecular arrangement is represented by a diagram or model.
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- the system or complex of beliefs held by members of a social group.
- the system of relations between the constituent groups of a society.
- the relationship between or the interrelated arrangement of the social institutions of a society or culture, as of mores, marriage customs, or family.
- the pattern of relationships, as of status or friendship, existing among the members of a group or society.
- the pattern of organization of a language as a whole or of arrangements of linguistic units, as phonemes, morphemes or tagmemes, within larger units.
—v.t. - to give a structure, organization, or arrangement to; construct a systematic framework for.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.