ed·i·fice

(ĕd′ə-fĭs)

1. A building, especially one of imposing appearance or size.

2. An elaborate conceptual structure: observations that provided the foundation for the edifice of evolutionary theory.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin aedificium, from aedificāre, to build : aedis, a building + -ficāre, -fy.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

edifice

(ˈɛdɪfɪs)

1. a building, esp a large or imposing one

2. a complex or elaborate institution or organization

[C14: from Old French, from Latin aedificium, from aedificāre to build; see edify]

edificial adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ed•i•fice

(ˈɛd ə fɪs)

n.

1. a building, esp. a large or imposing one.

2. any large, complex system or organization.

[1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin aedificium=aedific(āre) to build (see edify) + -ium -ium¹]

ed`i•fi′cial (-ˈfɪʃ əl) adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

edifice - a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place; "there was a three-story building on the corner"; "it was an imposing edifice"

building

abattoir, butchery, slaughterhouse, shambles - a building where animals are butchered

annex, annexe, wing, extension - an addition that extends a main building

antechamber, anteroom, entrance hall, foyer, lobby, vestibule, hall - a large entrance or reception room or area

apartment building, apartment house - a building that is divided into apartments

architecture - an architectural product or work

aviary, bird sanctuary, volary - a building where birds are kept

bathhouse, bathing machine - a building containing dressing rooms for bathers

bowling alley - a building that contains several alleys for bowling

center, centre - a building dedicated to a particular activity; "they were raising money to build a new center for research"

chapterhouse - a building attached to a monastery or cathedral; used as a meeting place for the chapter

clubhouse, club - a building that is occupied by a social club; "the clubhouse needed a new roof"

quoin, corner - (architecture) solid exterior angle of a building; especially one formed by a cornerstone

nook, corner - an interior angle formed by two meeting walls; "a piano was in one corner of the room"

cornerstone - a stone at the outer corner of two intersecting masonry walls

cornerstone - a stone in the exterior of a large and important building; usually carved with a date and laid with appropriate ceremonies

courtyard, court - an area wholly or partly surrounded by walls or buildings; "the house was built around an inner court"

cullis - a gutter in a roof

dorm, dormitory, residence hall, student residence, hall - a college or university building containing living quarters for students

elevator, lift - lifting device consisting of a platform or cage that is raised and lowered mechanically in a vertical shaft in order to move people from one floor to another in a building

exterior door, outside door - a doorway that allows entrance to or exit from a building

farm building - a building on a farm

feedlot - a building where livestock are fattened for market

firetrap - a building that would be hard to escape from if it were to catch fire

storey, floor, story, level - a structure consisting of a room or set of rooms at a single position along a vertical scale; "what level is the office on?"

foundation stone - a stone laid at a ceremony to mark the founding of a new building

gambling den, gambling hell, gambling house, gaming house - a public building in which a variety of games of chance can be played (operated as a business)

gazebo, summerhouse - a small roofed building affording shade and rest

government building - a building that houses a branch of government

glasshouse, greenhouse, nursery - a building with glass walls and roof; for the cultivation and exhibition of plants under controlled conditions

hall - a large building for meetings or entertainment

hall - a large building used by a college or university for teaching or research; "halls of learning"

Hall of Fame - a building containing trophies honoring famous people

heating plant, heating system, heating, heat - utility to warm a building; "the heating system wasn't working"; "they have radiant heating"

hotel - a building where travelers can pay for lodging and meals and other services

casino-hotel, hotel-casino - a building that houses both a hotel and a casino

house - a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families; "he has a house on Cape Cod"; "she felt she had to get out of the house"

house - a building in which something is sheltered or located; "they had a large carriage house"

interior door - a door that closes off rooms within a building

library - a building that houses a collection of books and other materials

health facility, healthcare facility, medical building - building where medicine is practiced

ministry - building where the business of a government department is transacted

dead room, morgue, mortuary - a building (or room) where dead bodies are kept before burial or cremation

observatory - a building designed and equipped to observe astronomical phenomena

edifice

noun building, house, structure, construction, pile, erection, habitation a list of historical edifices she must not fail to visit

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

edifice

noun

A usually permanent construction, such as a house or store:

building, pile, structure.

Translations

صَرْح، بِنايَه

bygningsværk

Bauwerk Gebäude

édifice

bygging

edificio struttura di grosse dimensioni

celtneēka

görkemli bina

大厦大建筑物

edifice

[ˈedɪfɪs] N (frm) → edificio m (imponente)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

edifice

[ˈɛdɪfɪs] n → édifice m

edifice

n (lit, fig) → Gebäude nt; (fig also) → Gefüge nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

edifice

[ˈɛdɪfɪs] n → costruzione f, edificio

edifice

(ˈedifis) noun

a building. The new cathedral is a magnificent edifice.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

But he had only to forget the artificial train of reasoning, and to turn from life itself to what had satisfied him while thinking in accordance with the fixed definitions, and all this artificial edifice fell to pieces at once like a house of cards, and it became clear that the edifice had been built up out of those transposed words, apart from anything in life more important than reason.

But afterwards, on reading a Catholic writer's history of the church, and then a Greek orthodox writer's history of the church, and seeing that the two churches, in their very conception infallible, each deny the authority of the other, Homiakov's doctrine of the church lost all its charm for him, and this edifice crumbled into dust like the philosophers' edifices.

View in context

A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats, inter-mixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

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May it not be that he loves chaos and destruction (there can be no disputing that he does sometimes love it) because he is instinctively afraid of attaining his object and completing the edifice he is constructing?

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A roof, Richard contended, was a part of the edifice that the ancients always endeavored to conceal, it being an excrescence in architecture that was only to be tolerated on account of its usefulness.

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One family built the whole edifice, and have got money left.

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On my occasional visits to the town aforesaid, I seldom failed to turn down Pyncheon Street, for the sake of passing through the shadow of these two antiquities, --the great elm-tree and the weather-beaten edifice.

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The lower floor of this edifice had hitherto been used by the merchants as an exchange.

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On the one hand there is fear and regret for the loss of the whole edifice constructed through the ages, on the other is the passion for destruction.

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The sign represented the front of a stately edifice, which was designated as the "OLD PROVINCE HOUSE, kept by Thomas Waite." I was glad to be thus reminded of a purpose, long entertained, of visiting and rambling over the mansion of the old royal governors of Massachusetts; and entering the arched passage, which penetrated through the middle of a brick row of shops, a few steps transported me from the busy heart of modern Boston into a small and secluded courtyard.

View in context

The persons who, like ourselves, never cross the Place de Grève without casting a glance of pity and sympathy on that poor turret strangled between two hovels of the time of Louis XV., can easily reconstruct in their minds the aggregate of edifices to which it belonged, and find again entire in it the ancient Gothic place of the fifteenth century.

View in context

Against these far stretches of country rose, in front of the other city edifices, a large red-brick building, with level gray roofs, and rows of short barred windows bespeaking captivity, the whole contrasting greatly by its formalism with the quaint irregularities of the Gothic erections.

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