building and construction share a recorded sense, so the question is not what they mean but which one fits. building means “a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place”. construction means “the act of constructing something”. building is the more common of the two in everyday English.
/ˈbɪldɪŋ/
1.n.a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place
“there was a three-story building on the corner”
2.n.the act of constructing something
“during the construction we had to take a detour”
3.n.the commercial activity involved in repairing old structures or constructing new ones
“their main business is home construction”
| building | construction | |
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɪldɪŋ/ | /kənˈstɹʌkʃən/ |
| Said | BIL-ding | kuhn-STRUHK-shuhn |
| Syllables | 2 | 3 |
| Letters | 8 | 12 |
| Parts of speech | noun | noun |
| Senses | 4 | 7 |
| How common | Core | Common |
| Synonyms | edifice | building |
Full entry for building · Full entry for construction · More comparisons
/kənˈstɹʌkʃən/
1.n.the act of constructing something
“during the construction we had to take a detour”
2.n.a group of words that form a constituent of a sentence and are considered as a single unit
“I concluded from his awkward constructions that he was a foreigner”
3.n.the creation of a construct; the process of combining ideas into a congruous object of thought