architecture

Meaning

Noun

• The art and science of designing and managing the construction of buildings and other structures, particularly if they are well proportioned and decorated.
• Any particular style of building design.
• Construction, in a more general sense; frame or structure; workmanship.
• A unifying structure.
• A family of CPUs sharing a common instruction set and having partial or full compatibility with software built on each other.
• A specific model of a microchip or CPU.
• The structure and design of a system or product.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• enterprise architecture
• event-driven architecture
• formula architecture
• microarchitecture
• model-driven architecture
• quality-driven archictecture
• service-oriented architecture
• software architecture
• system architecture

Origin

• Borrowed from French architecture, from Latin architectūra. Originally from architect, from Ancient Greek ἀρχιτέκτων.