Structural means to do with how something is built. Structural damage, a structural engineer, structural changes.
In building, structural means load-bearing: a structural wall holds the house up and a partition does not, which is the first question anybody asks before knocking one through. Structural damage is the serious kind. Figuratively it means built into the system rather than accidental: structural inequality, structural reform, a structural problem. Note structurally, as in structurally sound; and structure, restructure.
1adjectivestructuralTo do with how something is built.
“The earthquake caused serious structural damage, and engineers said the bridge was unsafe.”
2adjectivesystemBuilt into a system rather than accidental.
“Poverty in the region is a structural problem, not the fault of individual families.”
structural is a quality of building or system.
Structure plus -al, from the nineteenth century. Latin struere means to build, which also gives construct, destroy, instruct and industry.
Latin
structūra — a fitting together, adjustment, building, erection, a building, edifice, structure
Middle French
structure
English
structure
English, today
structural
Built from
From structure + -al, 19th century. structure comes from Middle French structure, from Latin structūra (“a fitting together, adjustment, building, erection, a building, edifice, structure”), from struere, past participle structus (“pile up, arrange, assemble, build”). Compare construct, instruct, destroy, etc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA