Framework

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfɹeɪm.wɜːk/

Definitions

1. A structural system or set of guidelines that provides support and organization for building or developing something
2. A supportive structure or conceptual model that helps in organizing, guiding, or developing a particular system or idea
3. An organized arrangement or underlying structure that facilitates the construction, understanding, or implementation of various concepts or projects

Etymology: "Framework" is a plain compound: "frame" joined to "work." "Frame" traces back to Old English "framian," meaning to be useful, to make progress, or to profit, and it came to mean a structure built to hold something in shape. "Work" is the ordinary Old English word for labour or a made thing. Put together, the two words describe a skeleton of timber, iron or other material that holds a building, vehicle or object together, and that literal sense is still the core of the noun. The word's figurative life grew out of that physical sense. Once a framework meant the supporting structure of a thing, it became natural to use it for the underlying organisation of an idea, system or plan: a framework of laws, a framework for negotiation. The metaphor is simple, and the abstract use is now more common than the building sense for many readers.

Synonyms: structure, system, scaffold