Framework

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈfɹeɪmwɜːk/
• US IPA: /ˈfɹeɪmwɝk/

Origin

frame + work

Full definition of framework

Noun

1. (literally)   The arrangement of support beams that represent a building's general shape and size.
2. (figuratively)   The larger branches of a tree that determine its shape.
3. (figuratively, especially in, computing)   A basic conceptual structure.
• 2012, John T. Jost, Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?, He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.
4. These ‘three principles of connexion’ comprise the framework of principles in Hume's account of the association of ideas.
5. (literally)   The identification and categorisation of processes or steps that constitute a complex task or mindset in order to render explicit the tacit and implicit.

Derived terms

• architectural framework
• framework agreement
• software framework