architect

Pluralarchitects

Formsarchitects, architecting, architected

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A professional who designs buildings or other structures, prepares the plans, and oversees their construction.

   The architect submitted detailed blueprints to the city planning office.

   Several architects competed to design the new concert hall.

   Similardesigner

   Note

   The literal sense, and the one the word's origin pictures most directly: Greek arkhitéktōn, the "chief builder", from arkhi- "chief" and téktōn "builder", reaching English through Latin and Middle French. The name describes leadership among builders rather than drawing alone, which fits a role that covers superintending construction as well as designing it.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Someone who conceives a plan and works out how to bring it about, as with a policy, reform, or agreement.

   Historians regard her as the chief architect of the reform movement.

   The treaty's architects spent months negotiating its terms.

   Similarauthor, creator, designer, engineer, originator

   Note

   Here the thing built is an outcome rather than a structure: a reform, a treaty, a goal in football. The word nearly always takes of, as in the architect of the opening goal or the first architect of the Iliad. It credits the planning rather than the labor, so a sports report can name a winger whose trickery set up a goal as its architect. It is a figurative extension of the building professional.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To design, plan, or orchestrate something deliberately.

   The committee architected a sweeping overhaul of the tax code.

   Skilled teams architect software that can serve millions of users.

   Similardesign, engineer, devise, orchestrate, plan

   Note

   The verb is older than it sounds. In Mary Andrews Denison's Gracie Amber (1857), a character already "architected his own fortunes", and The Electrical Review of 1894 uses it of a borough engineer. It is transitive, so it needs an object: you architect a plan, a coup or a system. Its forms are regular: architects, architecting, architected.

4. 4
   nounPhilippines

   An honorific placed before the name of a qualified architect, usually capitalized or abbreviated as Arch. or Ar.

   Architect Cruz signed the final inspection report herself.

   We invited Architect Mendoza to speak at the conference.

   Note

   A title of address in Philippine English: the profession goes before the surname much as Doctor does, as in Architect Cruz. In that position it is capitalized, or shortened to Arch. or Ar. Written in lowercase, or placed after a name, it is simply the ordinary job description of the building professional.

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