ædifice

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.
   • The real difficulty was moral, not intellectual. Was the whole edifice of Ptolemy to be destroyed?1904, Edward S. Holden, “Copernicus”, in Popular science monthly, volume 65, page 117