architect

English

An architect at a drawing board.

Etymology

From Middle French architecte, from Latin architectus, from Ancient Greek ἀρχιτέκτων (arkhitéktōn, “master builder”), from ἀρχι- (arkhi-, “chief”) + τέκτων (téktōn, “builder”).

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɑː.kɪˌtɛkt/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

architect (plural architects)

A professional who designs buildings or other structures, or who prepares plans and superintends construction.
Plato made the causes of things to be matter, ideas, and an efficient architect.
A person who plans, devises or contrives the achievement of a desired result.
Peisistratus was the first architect of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
- 2012 April 21, Jonathan Jurejko, “Newcastle 3-0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport‎:
  French winger Hatem Ben Arfa has also taken plenty of plaudits recently and he was the architect of the opening goal with some superb trickery on the left touchline.
(Philippines) An honorific given to architects. Usually capitalized or abbreviated as Arch./Ar. before the person's name.

Synonyms

architector (obsolete)

Derived terms

business architect
ecoarchitect
every man is the architect of his own fortune
microarchitect
naval architect
software architect
starchitect

Related terms

architecture

Translations

designer of buildings

Afrikaans: argitek (af)
Albanian: mjeshtër i ndërtimit (sq), mjeshtëre e ndërtimit, ndërtimtar (sq) m, ndërtimtare f, arkitekt (sq) m, arkitekte (sq) f
Arabic: مِعْمَارِيّ‎ m (miʿmāriyy), مُهَنْدِس مِعْمَارِيّ‎ m (muhandis miʿmāriyy)
Armenian: ճարտարապետ (hy) (čartarapet)
Asturian: arquiteutu m, arquitectu m
Azerbaijani: memar (az), arxitektor
Basque: arkitekto (eu)
Belarusian: архітэ́ктар m (arxitéktar), архітэ́ктарка f (arxitéktarka)
Bengali: স্থপতি (sthôpôti)
Bikol Central: arkitekto
Bulgarian: архите́кт m (arhitékt), архите́ктка f (arhitéktka)
Burmese: ဗိသုကာ (my) (bi.su.ka)
Catalan: arquitecte (ca) m or f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 建築師 (gin³ zuk¹ si¹), 設計師 (cit³ gai³ si¹)
Mandarin: 建築師／建筑师 (zh) (jiànzhúshī), 設計師／设计师 (zh) (shèjìshī)
Min Nan: 建築師 (zh-min-nan), 建筑师 (kiàn-tio̍k-su), 設計師 (zh-min-nan), 设计师 (siat-kè-su)
Czech: architekt (cs) m, architektka f
Danish: arkitekt (da) c
Dutch: architect (nl) m, bouwmeester (nl) m
Esperanto: arĥitekto, arkitekto, arĥitekturisto, arkitekturisto
Estonian: arhitekt (et)
Faroese: byggilistafólk n
Finnish: arkkitehti (fi)
French: architecte (fr) m or f
Galician: arquitecto (gl) m, arquitecta f
Georgian: არქიტექტორი (arkiṭekṭori), ხუროთმოძღვარი (xurotmoʒɣvari)
German: Architekt (de) m, Architektin (de) f
Greek: αρχιτέκτονας (el) m or f (architéktonas)
Ancient: ἀρχιτέκτων m (arkhitéktōn)
Greenlandic: arkitekti
Haitian Creole: achitèk
Hebrew: אַדְרִיכָל‎ (he) m (adrikhál), אדריכלית‎ f (adrikhalít)
Hiligaynon: arkitekto
Hindi: वास्तुकार m (vāstukār)
Hungarian: (tervező) építész, építészmérnök (hu)
Icelandic: arkitekt (is) m
Indonesian: arsitek (id)
Irish: ailtire m
Italian: architetto (it) m, architetta (it) f
Japanese: 建築家 (ja) (けんちくか, kenchikuka)
Kazakh: сәулетші (kk) (säuletşı)
Khmer: អ្នកគូរប្លង់ (nĕək kuu plɑng), និម្មាបនិក (km) (nɨmmiəpaʼnɨk)
Korean: 건축가(建築家) (ko) (geonchukga)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: mîmar (ku)
Kyrgyz: архитектор (ky) (arhitektor), башкуруучу (başkuruuçu)
Lao: ສະຖາປະນິກ (sa thā pa nik)
Latin: architectus m
Latvian: arhitekts m
Lithuanian: architektas m
Macedonian: архитект m (arhitekt)
Malay: arkitek, jurubina (ms)
Maltese: perit m
Manx: ard-obbree m
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: архитектор (arxitektor)
Northern Sami: please add this translation if you can
Norwegian:
Bokmål: arkitekt m
Nynorsk: arkitekt m
Occitan: arquitècte (oc) m, architècte m
Pashto: معمار‎ m (me'mãr)
Persian: معمار‎ (fa) (me'mâr), مهراز‎ (fa) (mehrâz)
Phoenician: 𐤐𐤋𐤔‎ m (plš)
Plautdietsch: Bümeista m (Chortitza)
Polish: architekt (pl) m or f, architektka (pl) f
Portuguese: arquiteto (pt) m, arquiteta (pt) f
Punic: 𐤐𐤋𐤔‎ m (plš)
Romanian: arhitect (ro) m, arhitectă (ro) f
Russian: архите́ктор (ru) m (arxitéktor), зо́дчий (ru) m (zódčij)
Scottish Gaelic: ailteir m, ailtire m, dealbhadair thogalach m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: архитекта m, архѝтект m
Roman: arhitekta (sh) m, arhìtekt (sh) m
Slovak: architekt m, architektka f
Slovene: arhitekt (sl) m
Spanish: arquitecto (es), arquitecta f
Swedish: arkitekt (sv) c
Tagalog: arkitekto
Tajik: меъмор (meʾmor)
Thai: สถาปนิก (sà-tǎa-bpà-ník)
Turkish: mimar (tr)
Turkmen: arhitektor (tk)
Ukrainian: архіте́ктор (uk) m (arxitéktor), архіте́кторка f (arxitéktorka)
Urdu: معمار‎ m (memār), ارکیٹیکٹ‎ m (arkīṭekṭ)
Uyghur: ئارخىتېكتور‎ (arxitëktor), بىناكار‎ (binakar)
Uzbek: arxitektor (uz), meʼmor (uz)
Vietnamese: kiến trúc sư (vi) (建築師)
Volapük: (epicene) bumavan (vo), (male) hibumavan, (female) jibumavan
Welsh: pensaer (cy) m
Yiddish: אַרכיטעקט‎ m (arkhitekt)

planner

Albanian: arkitekt (sq) m, arkitekte (sq) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 締造者／缔造者 (zh) (dìzàozhě), 創造者／创造者 (zh) (chuàngzàozhě)
Estonian: arhitekt (et), kavandaja
Finnish: arkkitehti (fi), suunnittelija (fi), rakentaja (fi)
Greek: αρχιτέκτονας (el) m or f (architéktonas)
Italian: ideatore (it) m, ideatrice (it) f
Korean: 설계자(設計者) (ko) (seolgyeja), 계획자(計劃者) (gyehoekja)
Latin: architectus m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: arkitekt m
Nynorsk: arkitekt m
Polish: architekt (pl) m or f, architektka (pl) f
Portuguese: arquiteto (pt) m, arquiteta (pt) f
Romanian: arhitect (ro) m, creator (ro) m
Tagalog: arkitekto

Verb

architect (third-person singular simple present architects, present participle architecting, simple past and past participle architected)

(transitive) To design, plan, or orchestrate.
He architected the military coup against the government.
- 1857, Mary Andrews Denison, Gracie Amber‎:
  Dacker was his own architect, (or, as he sometimes said, he architected his own fortunes,) and his own carpenter.
- 1894 December 14, The Electrical Review‎, volume 35, page 720:
  It is interesting to record that the excavating and the laying of the pipes for the mains have been done by the Corporation employés under the supervision and control of Mr. Harpur, the borough engineer, who, by the way, architected the station.

Translations

to design, plan or orchestrate

Chinese:
Mandarin: 設計／设计 (zh) (shèjì), 打算 (zh) (dǎsuàn), 計劃／计划 (zh) (jìhuà)
Finnish: suunnitella (fi)
French: architecturer (fr)
Portuguese: arquitetar (pt)
Romanian: arhitectura, concepe (ro)

Dutch