ˈsüpə(r)+ˌ- noun
Etymology: Latin superstruct us (past participle of superstruere to build on or over, from super- + struere to build) + English -ure — more at structure
1. : a structure built on or as a vertical extension of something else : something that is raised on a foundation: as
a. : all of a building above the basement
b. : the structural part of a ship above the main deck
c. : the ties, rails, and fastenings of a railroad track in distinction from the roadbed
2. : an entity, concept, or complex naturally or logically arising from or being based or imposed upon another more original or fundamental entity, concept, or complex
this credit superstructure rested on commodities, the collateral, rather than on the hard money — W.P.Webb
a small nubbin of fact … used as the foundation for a superstructure of inference and suspicion — Elmer Davis
specifically : an organization of ideas (as an ideology) or of persons (as a state bureaucracy) conceived as existing on a higher less functional level in relation to the fundamental operation of society
the principle that the form of economy determines the political superstructure — L.S.Feuer
saying that religion is a mere superstructure … in the class struggle — David Riesman
3. : a regular arrangement of the atoms of a solute in the solvent crystals of an alloy that is characteristic of the solute and not of the solvent