Structure vs. Machine — What's the Difference?

A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as biological organisms, minerals and chemicals.

A machine is any physical system with ordered structural and functional properties. It may represent human-made or naturally occurring device molecular machine that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action.

The arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex

A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that redirects mechanical energy to accomplish a particular task or set of tasks.

A building or other object constructed from several parts

See simple machine.

Construct or arrange according to a plan; give a pattern or organization to

See compound machine.

Something made up of a number of parts that are held or put together in a particular way

A system or device for doing work, as an automobile or jackhammer, together with its power source and auxiliary equipment.

The way in which parts are arranged or put together to form a whole; makeup

A system or device, such as a computer, that performs or assists in the performance of a human task

The interrelation or arrangement of parts in a complex entity

An intricate natural system or organism, such as the human body.

Something constructed, such as a building.

A person who acts in a rigid, mechanical, or unconscious manner.

The arrangement or formation of the tissues, organs, or other parts of an organism.

An organized group of people whose members are or appear to be under the control of one or more leaders

An organ or other part of an organism.

A device used to produce a stage effect, especially a mechanical means of lowering an actor onto the stage.

To give form or arrangement to

A literary device used to produce an effect, especially the introduction of a supernatural being to resolve a plot.

A cohesive whole built up of distinct parts.

An answering machine

The underlying shape of a solid.

Of, relating to, or felt to resemble a machine

The overall form or organization of something.

To cut, shape, or finish by machine.

A set of rules defining behaviour.

To be cut, shaped, or finished by machine

(computing) Several pieces of data treated as a unit.

A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.

Underwater terrain or objects (such as a dead tree or a submerged car) that tend to attract fish

(dated) A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane.

A body, such as a political party, with a cohesive purpose or outlook.

An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.

(logic) A set along with a collection of finitary functions and relations.

(computing) A computer.

(transitive) To give structure to; to arrange.

(figuratively) A person or organisation that seemingly acts like a machine, being particularly efficient, single-minded, or unemotional.

The act of building; the practice of erecting buildings; construction.

Especially, the group that controls a political or similar organization; a combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use.

Manner of building; form; make; construction.

(poetry) Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.

Arrangement of parts, of organs, or of constituent particles, in a substance or body; as, the structure of a rock or a mineral; the structure of a sentence.

The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas.

Manner of organization; the arrangement of the different tissues or parts of animal and vegetable organisms; as, organic structure, or the structure of animals and plants; cellular structure.

Penis.

That which is built; a building; esp., a building of some size or magnificence; an edifice.

(historical) A contrivance in the Ancient Greek theatre for indicating a change of scene, by means of which a god might cross the stage or deliver a divine message; the deus ex machina.

A thing constructed; a complex construction or entity;

(obsolete) A bathing machine.

The manner of construction of something and the arrangement of its parts;

To make by machinery.

The complex composition of knowledge as elements and their combinations;

To shape or finish by machinery; (usually, more specifically) to shape subtractively by metal-cutting with machine-controlled toolpaths.

A particular complex anatomical structure;

In general, any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot, etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex, consisting of a combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels, levers, cams, etc., with their supports and connecting framework, calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and apply them to the production of some desired mechanical effect or work, as weaving by a loom, or the excitation of electricity by an electrical machine.

The people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships;

Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.

Give a structure to;

A person who acts mechanically or at the will of another.

A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.

A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends; the Tammany machine.

Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.

To subject to the action of machinery; to make, cut, shape, or modify with a machine; to effect by aid of machinery; to print with a printing machine.

Any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks

An intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently;

An efficient person;

4-wheeled motor vehicle; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine;

A group that controls the activities of a political party;

A device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point

Turn, shape, mold, or otherwise finish by machinery

Make by machinery;