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.

   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

6. 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]
7. The manner of construction of something and the disposition of its parts; "artists must study the structure of the human body"; "the architecture of a computer's system software" [syn: architecture]
8. The complex composition of knowledge as elements and their combinations; "his lectures have no structure"
9. 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]

Structure \struc"ture\, v.