Framework

How to spell framework

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce framework

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does framework mean?

1. nounAn underlying system of rules, ideas, or principles used to plan or organise something.
2. nounA supporting structure of bars, beams, or other parts on which something is built.

Framework in a sentence

• The new legal framework governs how data is stored.

• Workers bolted the steel framework of the bridge into place.

• Managers built a clear framework for assessing staff performance.

• The old greenhouse had a rusting metal framework with no glass left.

Where does framework come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Framework is a transparent compound of two old Germanic words that English has carried since Anglo-Saxon times. The first element, 'frame', derives from the Old English verb framian, meaning 'to be helpful' or 'to make progress', which later narrowed to the idea of constructing or fitting pieces together, and then to the rigid border or skeleton that holds something in shape. The second element, 'work', comes from Old English weorc, simply meaning labour or a thing that has been made. Joined together from around the seventeenth century, framework first described a literal skeleton of timber or metal on which something is built, such as the frame of a building or a loom. From there it broadened into the figurative sense of an underlying structure of ideas, rules, or plans, the meaning most adults use today. Because both halves are ordinary words, the only spelling care needed is remembering it is written solid, as one word, with no space or hyphen.

How the word is built

• frame (structure, border)
• work (constructed thing)