Origin: Latin suffix -al
Structural has 8 different meanings across 1 category:
Structural steel, used in construction.
"The contractor ordered a shipment of structural steel to reinforce the building's main framework before pouring the concrete foundation."
In plain English: A structural problem is a physical flaw that makes something weak and likely to collapse.
"The structural problems in the building were discovered during the recent inspection."
relating to or caused by structure, especially political or economic structure
"structural unemployment in a technological society"
relating to or having or characterized by structure
"structural engineer"
"structural errors"
"structural simplicity"
affecting or involved in structure or construction
"the structural details of a house such as beams and joists and rafters; not ornamental elements"
"structural damage"
concerned with systematic structure in a particular field of study
"The professor spent the lecture explaining how structural linguistics analyzes the underlying rules that govern human language."
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"
relating to or concerned with the morphology of plants and animals
"morphological differences"
Of, relating to, or having structure.
"The new building's structural design ensures it can withstand heavy earthquakes without collapsing."
In plain English: Structural means relating to the way something is built or organized to hold it together.
"The structural integrity of the old bridge was tested after the storm."
Usage: Use structural when describing something that has an organized framework of parts working together as a whole. This term applies broadly to physical buildings and abstract systems like organizations or arguments alike.
The word structural comes from combining structure with the suffix -al. It entered English usage during the 19th century to describe something related to a structure.