edifice

See also: édifice

English

Alternative forms

• ædifice (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English edifice, from Old French edifice, a classical borrowing of Latin aedificium (“building”), derived from aedificāre (“to build, establish”) (whence also English edify).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛd.ɪ.fɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

edifice (plural edifices)

1. A building; a structure; an architectural fabric, especially a large and spectacular one.
2. An abstract structure, such as a school of thought, an argument, a theoretical position, etc.
   • 1904, Edward S. Holden, “Copernicus”, in Popular science monthly, volume 65, page 117:

     The real difficulty was moral, not intellectual. Was the whole edifice of Ptolemy to be destroyed?

   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 165:

     With a great thump on the table, Poirot demolished his carefully built up edifice.

Derived terms

• edifice complex

Related terms

terms related to edifice (noun)

• edificant
• edification
• edificator
• edificatory
• edificial
• edifier
• edify
• edifyingly
• edifyingness

Translations

building

Arabic: بِنَاء (ar) m (bināʔ), مَبْنَى (ar) m (mabnā), بِنَايَة (ar) m (bināya) Breton: savadur (br) m Bulgarian: зда́ние (bg) n (zdánie) Chinese: Mandarin: 大廈 / 大厦 (zh) (dàshà), 建築物 / 建筑物 (zh) (jiànzhùwù) Czech: budova (cs) f, stavba (cs) f Dutch: bouwwerk (nl) n, gebouw (nl) n Esperanto: konstruaĵo (eo) Finnish: rakennelma (fi) French: édifice (fr) m Galician: edificio (gl) m German: Bauwerk (de) n, Gebäude (de) n Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐍉 f (gatimrjō) Greek: κτήριο (el) n (ktírio) Hebrew: בניין (he) m (binyán) Hindi: इमारत (hi) (imārat), भवन (hi) (bhavan) Hungarian: építmény (hu) Icelandic: bygging (is) f, hús (is) n Italian: edificio (it) m Japanese: 建築物 (ja) (kenchikubutsu) Latin: aedificium (la) n Norwegian: byggverk n Ottoman Turkish: یاپی (yapı), عمارت (ʼimaret) Plautdietsch: Bu m Polish: gmach (pl) m Portuguese: edifício (pt) m, prédio (pt) m Romanian: edificiu (ro) n Russian: зда́ние (ru) n (zdánije) Spanish: edificio (es) m Swahili: jengo (sw) Swedish: byggnadsverk (sv), bygge (sv) n, konstruktion (sv) c Tagalog: edipisyo, gusali (tl) Tamil: கட்டடம் (ta) (kaṭṭaṭam) Telugu: కట్టడము (te) (kaṭṭaḍamu) Thai: สิ่งปลูกสร้าง (th)

school of thought

Arabic: مَدْرَسَة (ar) f (madrasa) Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 學派 / 学派 (zh) (xuépài), 學說 / 学说 (zh) (xuéshuō), 制度 (zh) (zhìdù) Dutch: constructie (nl), denkkader (nl) Finnish: ajatusrakennelma French: édifice (fr) m, école de pensée (fr) f German: Lehrgebäude n, Gedankengebäude n Hungarian: iskola (hu) Icelandic: please add this translation if you can Japanese: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: please add this translation if you can Portuguese: escola (pt) f Romanian: edificiu (ro) n, școală de gândire f Russian: доктри́на (ru) f (doktrína) Swahili: please add this translation if you can Swedish: tankedoktrin c Telugu: please add this translation if you can

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “edifice”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “edifice”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.