edifice

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A building, especially a large and impressive one.

   The cathedral is a vast stone edifice towering over the old town.

2. 2
   noun

   A complex system of ideas, beliefs, or arguments.

   His new evidence threatened to topple the whole edifice of the theory.

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).

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