Word.ws English Dictionary

edifice

UK/ˈɛd.ɪ.fɪs/

edifice noun: a building; a structure; an architectural fabric, especially a large and spectacular one.

edifice: a building; a structure; an architectural fabric, especially a large and spectacular one
Image: Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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
    • With a great thump on the table, Poirot demolished his carefully built up edifice.1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 165

edifice meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

edifice in Hindi

building
इमारत imārat, भवन bhavan

edifice in Tamil

building
கட்டடம் kaṭṭaṭam

edifice in Urdu

عمارت

edifice in Bengali

বিশাল, জাঁকজমকপূর্ণ অট্টালিকা, কোনো জটিল কাঠামো, ব্যবস্থা
More languagesFewer languages
edifice in Telugu
కట్టడము kaṭṭaḍamu
edifice in Malayalam
എടുപ്പ്, പ്രാസാദം, വലിയ കെട്ടിടം, സൗധം
edifice in Kannada
ದೊಡ್ಡ ಕಟ್ಟಡ
edifice in Tagalog
edipisyo, gusali
edifice in Arabic
بِنَاء bināʔ, مَبْنَى mabnā, بِنَايَة bināya, مَدْرَسَة madrasa
edifice in Indonesian
bangunan megah, gedung megah, kerangka pemikiran, tatanan pemikiran
edifice in Thai
สิ่งปลูกสร้าง

Examples of edifice in a sentence

  • A modern glass edifice nearby houses the headquarters of the illustrious Rothschild banking family.
  • Its edifices are oriented on a north–south axis, forming avenuelike areas and plazas.
  • Entire civilizations, from their laws to their edifices and city plans, were constructed around it.

All 14 example sentences with edifice

Forms of edifice

pluraledifices
alternative form (archaic)ædifice

Plural of edifice: edifices

Origin of edifice

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).

Words formed from edifice

Phrases with edifice

Questions about edifice

What does edifice mean?
Edifice means a building; a structure; an architectural fabric, especially a large and spectacular one.
What is edifice in Hindi?
Edifice in Hindi is इमारत (imārat), भवन (bhavan). See Edifice meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is edifice?
Edifice is a noun.
How do you pronounce edifice?
Edifice is pronounced /ˈɛd.ɪ.fɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of edifice?
The plural of edifice is edifices.

Words near edifice in the dictionary

  1. edification
  2. edifications
  3. edificator
  4. edificators
  5. edificatory
  6. edifice
  7. edifice complex
  8. edifice complexes
  9. edifices
  10. edificial
  11. edified

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: edifice (page history and authors); edifice (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Edifice (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); edifice (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); edifice (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-edifice.ogg.

Cite this entry: “edifice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/edifice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.