surface structure
nounDefinition of surface structure
: a formal representation of the phonetic form of a sentence
also
: the structure which such a representation describes
Examples of surface structure in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In recent experiments, Osborn examined the surface structure of seven species of super black fish, acquired from the wild. — Sonke Johnsen, National Geographic, "How Deep-Sea Fish Are So Exceptionally Black," 18 Apr. 2018 Feathers, like most opaque objects, typically get their color from pigments in surface coatings (much as melanin colors skin) or from tiny surface structures that reflect light, such as those found on iridescent butterflies and beetles. — Sid Perkins, Scientific American, "Back to Black: How Birds-of-Paradise Get Their Midnight Feathers," 9 Jan. 2018 The process alters the surface structure of the steel, and the right amount of current and voltage can produce the kind of spikes that kill bacteria. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "Researchers Create Bacteria-Killing Steel Nanospikes," 19 Dec. 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'surface structure.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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