Architecture \Ar"chi*tec`ture\ (?; 135), n. [L. architectura,
   fr. architectus: cf. F. architecture. See Architect.]
   1. The art or science of building; especially, the art of
      building houses, churches, bridges, and other structures,
      for the purposes of civil life; -- often called civil
      architecture.
      [1913 Webster]

            Many other architectures besides Gothic. --Ruskin.
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   3. Construction, in a more general sense; frame or structure;
      workmanship.
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            The architecture of grasses, plants, and trees.
                                                  --Tyndall.
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            The formation of the first earth being a piece of
            divine architecture.                  --Burnet.
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   Military architecture, the art of fortifications.

   Naval architecture, the art of building ships.
      [1913 Webster]

	

	architecture
     n 1: an architectural product or work
     2: the discipline dealing with the principles of design and
        construction and ornamentation of fine buildings;
        "architecture and eloquence are mixed arts whose end is
        sometimes beauty and sometimes use"
     3: the profession of designing buildings and environments with
        consideration for their esthetic effect
     4: (computer science) the structure and organization of a
        computer's hardware or system software; "the architecture
        of a computer's system software" [syn: computer
        architecture]

	

	155 Moby Thesaurus words for "architecture":
   Bauhaus, Byzantine, Egyptian, English, French, German, Gothic,
   Greco-Roman, Greek, Greek Revival, Italian, Persian, Renaissance,
   Roman, Romanesque, Spanish, academic, action, anagnorisis, anatomy,
   angle, architectonics, argument, arrangement, assembly, atmosphere,
   background, baroque, build, building, casting, catastrophe,
   characterization, civil architecture, color, complication,
   composition, conformation, constitution, construct, construction,
   continuity, contrivance, conversion, crafting, craftsmanship,
   creation, cultivation, denouement, design, development, device,
   devising, early renaissance, edifice, elaboration, episode,
   erection, establishment, extraction, fable, fabric, fabrication,
   falling action, fashion, fashioning, forging, form, format,
   formation, forming, formulation, frame, framing, frozen music,
   functionalism, getup, gimmick, growing, handicraft, handiwork,
   harvesting, house, incident, international, landscape architecture,
   landscape gardening, line, local color, machining, make, makeup,
   making, manufacture, manufacturing, medieval, milling, mining,
   modern, mold, molding, mood, motif, movement, mythos,
   organic structure, organism, organization, packaged house, pattern,
   patterning, peripeteia, physique, pile, plan, plot, prefab,
   prefabrication, preparation, processing, producing, production,
   pyramid, raising, recognition, refining, rising action, scheme,
   secondary plot, setup, shape, shaping, skyscraper, slant, smelting,
   story, structure, structuring, subject, subplot, superstructure,
   switch, tectonics, texture, thematic development, theme, tissue,
   tone, topic, tower, twist, warp and woof, weave, web,
   workmanship

	

	architecture
     
         Design, the way components fit together.  The
        term is used particularly of processors, both individual and
        in general.  "The ARM has a really clean architecture".  It
        may also be used of any complex system, e.g. "software
        architecture", "network architecture".
     
        (1995-05-02)