BUILDING BLOCK

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A block of material used in construction work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("building block" is a kind of...):

building material (material used for constructing buildings)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "building block"):

ashlar (a rectangular block of hewn stone used for building purposes)

breeze block; cinder block; clinker block (a light concrete building block made with cinder aggregate)

headstone; key; keystone (the central building block at the top of an arch or vault)

voussoir (wedge-shaped stone building block used in constructing an arch or vault)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A single undivided natural thing occurring in the composition of something else

Example:

units of nucleic acids

Synonyms:

building block; unit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("building block" is a kind of...):

thing (a separate and self-contained entity)

Meronyms (parts of "building block"):

part; piece (a portion of a natural object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "building block"):

chain; chemical chain ((chemistry) a series of linked atoms (generally in an organic molecule))

couple ((physics) something joined by two equal and opposite forces that act along parallel lines)

unit cell (the smallest group of atoms or molecules whose repetition at regular intervals in three dimensions produces the lattices of a crystal)

chemical group; group; radical ((chemistry) two or more atoms bound together as a single unit and forming part of a molecule)

molecule ((physics and chemistry) the simplest structural unit of an element or compound)

Credits

Context examples:

The variations that exist can be as small as a difference in a single DNA building block—called a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)—or as large as whole sections of the genome being copied or moved.

(Genetic Adaptations to Diet and Climate, NIH)

It helps form the backbone of the long chains of nucleotides that create RNA and DNA; it is part of the phospholipids in cell membranes; and is a building block of the coenzyme used as an energy carrier in cells, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).