Noun

(en noun)

A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction.

(navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.

Relevance; a relationship or connection.

That has no bearing on this issue.

* Alexander Pope

But of this frame, the bearings and the ties, / The strong connections, nice dependencies.

One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing .

* Shakespeare

I know him by his bearing .

(in the plural) Direction or relative position.

(architecture) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports.

A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

(architecture) The portion of a support on which anything rests.

(architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span.

The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

(heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.

* Thackeray

A carriage covered with armorial bearings .

Noun

(en noun)

A cohesive whole built up of distinct parts.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}

The birds had built an amazing structure out of sticks and various discarded items.

The underlying shape of a solid.

He studied the structure of her face.

The overall form or organization of something.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author= , title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure , astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

The structure of a sentence.

The structure of the society was still a mystery.

A set of rules defining behaviour.

For some, the structure of school life was oppressive.

(computing)  Several pieces of data treated as a unit.

This structure contains both date and timezone information.

(fishing, uncountable)  Underwater terrain or objects (such as a dead tree or a submerged car) that tend to attract fish

There's lots of structure to be fished along the west shore of the lake; the impoundment submerged a town there when it was built.

A body, such as a political party, with a cohesive purpose or outlook.

The South African leader went off to consult with the structures .

(logic)  A set along with a collection of finitary functions and relations.