Definitions of Architecture on the Web

Some of the results from letting Google define architecture:

• “[A]n architectural product or work.”
• “[T]he discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings.”
• “[T]he structure and organization of a computer’s hardware or system software.”
• “The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components, the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships among them.”
• “A software architecture is an abstraction of the run-time elements of a software system during some phase of its operation. A system may be composed of many levels of abstraction and many phases of operation, each with its own software architecture.”
• “A description of all functional activities to be performed to achieve the desired mission, the system elements needed to perform the functions, and the designation of performance levels of those system elements. An architecture also includes information on the technologies, interfaces, and location of functions and is considered an evolving description of an approach to achieving a desired mission.”
• “The manner in which a system (infrastructure, hardware and software) is designed. Architecture usually describes how the system is constructed, how the components fit together, and the protocols and interfaces used to integrate these components. It also defines the functions and description of data formats and procedures used for communication between nodes and workstations.”
• “A design. [...] The architecture of a system always defines its broad outlines, and may define precise mechanisms as well. An open architecture allows the system to be connected easily to devices and programs made by other manufacturers. Open architectures use off-the-shelf components and conform to approved standards. A system with a closed architecture, on the other hand, is one whose design is proprietary, making it difficult to connect the system to other systems.”
• “A term applied to both the process and the outcome of thinking out and specifying the overall structure, logical components, and the logical interrelationships of a computer, its operating system, a network, or other conception.”
• “The highest level concept of a system in its environment. The architecture of a software system (at a given point in time) is its organization or structure of significant components interacting through interfaces, those components being composed of successively smaller components and interfaces.”
• “The outline design of a system, identifying the major components and their functionalities – can be applied to applications, systems and networks.”
• “The structure of a system’s components and connectors, their interrelationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time.”

Interestingly, WordNet, which is listed with three first definitions in the above list, has a quote as part of one of its definitions for the word. The source wasn’t given, but it turned out to be from an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, titled Thought on Art”, in which he says:

Music, eloquence, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture. This is a rough enumeration of the Fine Arts. [...] Architecture and eloquence are mixed arts, whose end is sometimes beauty and sometimes use.