Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Relating to the arrangement and interrelation of parts in a complex entity: Pertaining to the way something is built, organized, or put together.
   • Concerned with the load-bearing framework or form of a building or object: Involving the elements that give a construction its shape, strength, and stability.
   • Arising from or relating to the fundamental nature of a system, especially in politics or economics: Resulting from the basic organization or framework of a society or institution.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The architect reviewed the structural plans for the new bridge.
  • Earthquakes can cause significant structural damage to buildings.
  • The report analyzed the structural problems within the education system.

Advanced Usage

• "Structural integrity": The ability of a structure to withstand its intended load without breaking or deforming excessively.

  • Engineers tested the building's structural integrity after the fire.

• "Structural adjustment": A set of economic policies, often required by international lending institutions, aimed at reducing government deficits and modifying the economic structure of a country.

  • The country underwent a painful structural adjustment program.

• "Structural linguistics": An approach to linguistics that analyzes language as a system of interrelated units and structures.

  • His research is grounded in the principles of structural linguistics.

Variants and Related Words

• Structure (n): The arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex.

  • The social structure of the community was very hierarchical.

• Structurally (adv): In a way that relates to structure.

  • The building is structurally sound.

• Restructure (v): To organize something differently.

  • The company had to restructure its debt.

Synonyms

• Constitutional: Relating to the basic nature or structure of something.
• Organizational: Relating to the way in which something is organized.
• Framework: (as a conceptual synonym) The basic structure underlying a system or concept.

Related Phrases

• Structural beam: A horizontal load-bearing element in a building.
• Structural inequality: Inequality that is built into the organization of a social system.
• Structural formula: A diagram showing the arrangement of atoms in a molecule.

Related Idioms

• • Poverty is often a form of structural violence.

Adjective

1. relating to or concerned with the morphology of plants and animals
   • morphological differences
2. pertaining to geological structure
   • geomorphological features of the Black Hills
   • morphological features of granite
   • structural effects of folding and faulting of the earth's surface
3. concerned with systematic structure in a particular field of study
4. affecting or involved in structure or construction; not ornamental elements"
   • the structural details of a house such as beams and joists and rafters
   • structural damage
5. relating to or having or characterized by structure
   • structural engineer
   • structural errors
   • structural simplicity
6. relating to or caused by structure, especially political or economic structure
   • structural unemployment in a technological society