structures

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of structure.

   The architects designed several structures for the new campus.

   Ancient stone structures still stand across the region.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of structure take this plural: buildings, organized wholes, bundles of data treated as a unit. Many of those meanings also run uncountable (an essay that lacks structure), and there no plural applies. The angler's sense, meaning sunken trees and submerged cars that draw fish, is uncountable only, so a lake has good structure, never good structures. The same spelling also serves as the verb form.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of structure.

   The teacher structures each class around a single theme.

   Our manager structures the team into small working groups.

   Note

   The verb has one transitive meaning, to give something an arrangement, so this form nearly always takes a direct object: she structures the report, the coach structures practice. It shares its spelling with the plural noun, and position tells them apart. After a singular subject it is the verb (the plan structures the week). After a determiner or adjective it is the noun (several tall structures).

Showing meanings only. Show all 2