Other forms: buildings
A building is anything with walls and a roof that people have made to use. A tall building, an old building, the building was demolished.
It covers houses, offices, churches and sheds alike. As an uncountable noun, building is the activity: building work, the building trade, building regulations. Listed building is the British category for one protected because of its historic interest, and it comes with real restrictions. Note building site, building society; and that building up and building on are among the commonest phrasal verbs in the language.
1nounbuildingA structure with walls and a roof made to be used.~86%
“The old building on the corner is going to become a library.”
2nounactivityThe activity of constructing.~14%
“Building work started in March and finished about two years late.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 21 sentences found in the wild and placed 21 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
building is a made structure.
Old English byldan, to build, comes from bold, a dwelling — from a root meaning to be or to live. Building is named for living in rather than for constructing, which is the older way round.
Middle English
byldynge
English, today
building
From Middle English byldynge, buyldyng, byldyng, buldynge, buldyng, boldyng, equivalent to build + -ing. Compare also related Middle English bold (“edifice, castle, mansion”), from Old English bold (“building, dwelling, house”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA