edifice
Americannoun
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a building, especially one of large size or imposing appearance.
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any large, complex system or organization.
noun
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a building, esp a large or imposing one
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a complex or elaborate institution or organization
Related Words
See building.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of edifice
1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin aedificium, equivalent to aedific ( āre ) to build ( see edify) + -ium -ium
Explanation
Edifice means a building, but it doesn't mean just any building. To merit being called an edifice, a building must be important. A small but elegant temple can be an edifice, and so can a towering sky scraper. The meaning of edifice has expanded to include a system of ideas — when it is complicated enough to be considered to have walls and a roof, then it is an edifice. You could say that basic facts of addition and subtraction are the foundation on which the edifice of higher math rests.
Vocabulary lists containing edifice
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Pearl
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In Cold Blood
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Most Europeans see trans-Atlanticism as something like an edifice, with a wooden facade built over brick walls sitting on granite foundations.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
Thick layers of sediment rich in organic material lie beneath the volcanic edifice.
From Science Daily • Nov. 26, 2025
And then, the entire edifice crumbled as Baltimore became the focus and fall guy for one of the more infamous investigations of scientific misconduct in the last half of the 20th century.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025
The weakness in the grand edifice of American constitutionalism is that it depends on the determination, in every generation, of those in positions of authority to uphold it.
From Slate • Jan. 29, 2025
The Teacherage, which stands opposite the up-to-date school, is an out-of-date edifice, drab and poignant.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
