A frame is often a

structural system The term structural system or structural frame in structural engineering refers to the load-resisting sub-system of a building or object. The structural system transfers loads through interconnected elements or members. Commonly used structu ...

that supports other components of a physical construction and/or

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to:

Physical objects

In building construction

Framing (construction) Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure, particularly a building, support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is ...

, a building term known as light frame construction *

Framer A framer is someone who builds or creates frames. In construction work, Framing (construction), frames may be built from wood or metal and provide support and shape to a structure. In a related sense, framers may create Picture frame, frames for ...

, a carpenter who assembles major structural elements in constructing a building *

A-frame An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a Structural load, load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized Beam (structure), beams, arranged in an angle of 45 degrees or less, attached a ...

, a basic structure designed to bear a load in a lightweight economical manner ** A-frame house, a house following the same principle * Door frame or

window frame A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materi ...

, fixed structures to which the hinges of doors or windows are attached *

Frame and panel Frame and panel construction, also called rail and stile, is a woodworking technique often used in the making of coffered doors, ceilings, wainscoting, and decorative panels for cabinets, furniture Furniture refers to objects intended to s ...

, a method of woodworking *

Space frame In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure (Three-dimensional space, 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometry, geometric pattern. Space frames can ...

, a method of construction using lightweight or light materials *

Timber framing Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

, a method of building for creating framed structures of heavy timber or willow wood

In vehicles

Frame (aircraft) A former is an object, such as a template, gauge or cutting die, which is used to form something such as a boat's hull. Typically, a former gives shape to a structure that may have complex curvature. A former may become an integral part of the ...

, structural rings in an aircraft fuselage *

Frame (nautical) In ships, frames are ribs that are transverse bolted or welded to the keel. Frames support the hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the ...

, the skeleton of a boat *

Bicycle frame A bicycle frame is the main component of a bicycle, onto which wheels and other components are fitted. The modern and most common frame design for an upright bicycle is based on the safety bicycle, and consists of two triangles: a main triangle ...

, the main component of a bicycle, onto which other components are fitted **

Motorcycle frame A motorcycle frame is a motorcycle's core structure. It supports the engine, provides a location for the steering and motorcycle suspension, rear suspension, and supports the rider and any passenger or luggage. Also attached to the frame are the ...

, main component of a motorbike, onto which other components are fitted *

Locomotive frame A locomotive frame is the structure that forms the backbone of the railway locomotive, giving it strength and supporting the superstructure elements such as a cab, boiler or bodywork. The vast majority of locomotives have had a frame structure ...

, a structure that forms the backbone of a railway locomotive *

Vehicle frame A vehicle frame, also historically known as its ''chassis'', is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism. Until the 1930s, virtually every car had ...

, to which everything on an automobile is mounted

Other physical objects

Frame (loudspeaker) A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or, more fully, a speaker system) is a combination of one or more speaker drivers, an Loudspeaker enclosure, enclosure, and electrical connections (possibly including a Audio crossover, crosso ...

or basket, a structural component which supports the functional components of a loudspeaker *

Bed frame A bed frame or bedstead is the part of a bed used to position the bed base, the flat part which in turn directly supports the mattress(es). The frame may also stop the mattress from sliding sideways, and it may include means of supporting a can ...

, the part of a bed used to position the mattress and base * Climbing frame or jungle gym, a piece of equipment for children's play *

Eyeglass Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles ( Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically ...

frame *

Lever frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the Railway signal, signals, track locks and Railroad switch, points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usuall ...

, a railway signalling device containing interlocks for signals, points (railroad switches) etc. * Picture frame, a solid border around a picture or painting *

Receiver (firearms) In firearms terminology and law, the firearm frame or receiver is the part of a firearm which integrates other components by providing housing (engineering), housing for internal action (firearms), action components such as the hammer (firearms), ...

or frame, one of the basic parts of a modern firearm *

Spinning frame The spinning frame is an Industrial Revolution invention for spinning thread or yarn from fibres such as wool or cotton in a mechanized way. It was developed in 18th-century Britain by Richard Arkwright and John Kay. Historical context In 1 ...

, an invention of the Industrial Revolution for spinning thread or yarn from fibre such as wool or cotton *

Water frame The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. History Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread, which was first used in 1765. The Arkwright water f ...

, a water-powered spinning frame which was an easy way to create cotton *

Frame (beekeeping) A beehive is an enclosed structure which houses honey bees, subgenus '' Apis.'' Honey bees live in the beehive, raising their young and producing honey as part of their seasonal cycle. Though the word ''beehive'' is used to describe the nest of ...

, a wooden frame designed to hold an area of honeycomb in a Langstroth-type beehive

Mathematics and physics

*Generally speaking, a

coordinate frame In mathematics, a set of elements of a vector space is called a basis (: bases) if every element of can be written in a unique way as a finite linear combination of elements of . The coefficients of this linear combination are referred to as ...

that defines a coordinate system **

Frame of reference In physics and astronomy, a frame of reference (or reference frame) is an abstract coordinate system, whose origin (mathematics), origin, orientation (geometry), orientation, and scale (geometry), scale have been specified in physical space. It ...

, in physics, a set of reference points that define a coordinate system ** ''Frame'', another name for an

ordered basis Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * ...

of a vector space **

Frame (linear algebra) In linear algebra, a frame of an inner product space is a generalization of a basis of a vector space to sets that may be linearly dependent. In the terminology of signal processing, a frame provides a redundant, stable way of representing a sign ...

, a generalization of a basis to sets of possibly linearly dependent vectors which also satisfy the ''frame condition'' ** ''k''-frame, a generalization of a basis to linearly independent sets of vectors that need not span the space ** Affine frame, in an affine space and, in particular, in a Euclidean space ** Projective frame, in projective geometry ** Orthonormal frame, in Riemannian geometry **

Moving frame In mathematics, a moving frame is a flexible generalization of the notion of a coordinate frame (an ordered basis of a vector space, in conjunction with an origin) often used to study the extrinsic differential geometry of smooth manifolds em ...

, in differential geometry **

Frame bundle In mathematics, a frame bundle is a principal fiber bundle F(E) associated with any vector bundle ''E''. The fiber of F(E) over a point ''x'' is the set of all ordered bases, or ''frames'', for ''E_x''. The general linear group acts naturally on ...

, a principal fiber bundle associated with any vector bundle *

Frames and locales In mathematics, especially in order theory, a complete Heyting algebra is a Heyting algebra that is complete as a lattice. Complete Heyting algebras are the objects of three different categories; the category CHey, the category Loc of locales, a ...

, in order theory *

Sampling frame In statistics, a sampling frame is the source material or device from which a Sampling (statistics), sample is drawn. It is a list of all those within a Statistical population, population who can be sampled, and may include individuals, households ...

, a set of items or events possible to measure (statistics)

Computing and telecommunications

In displays

* Frame (GUI), a box used to hold other widgets in a graphical user interface *

Film frame In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many '' still images'' which compose the complete ''moving picture''. The term is derived from the historical development of film stock, in which the sequentia ...

, one of the many single photographic images in a motion picture * Photographic film frame, one of the many segments recorded in a photographic film *

Frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

, the number of frames—or images—displayed on screen per unit of time, usually expressed in frames per second (FPS) *

Framing (World Wide Web) In the context of a web browser, a frame is a part of a web page or browser Window (computing), window which displays content independent of its container, with the ability to load content independently. The HTML or media elements in a frame ma ...

, a method of displaying multiple HTML documents on one page of a web browser **

Iframes An HTML element is a type of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document component, one of several types of HTML nodes (there are also text nodes, comment nodes and others). The first used version of HTML was written by Tim Berners-Lee in 1993 ...

, a frame element in HTML code

Software

Adobe FrameMaker Adobe FrameMaker is a document processor designed for writing and editing large or complex documents, including structured documents. It was originally developed by Frame Technology Corporation, which was bought by Adobe. Overview FrameMaker ...

, a desktop publishing application * Google Chrome Frame, an open source plug-in designed for Internet Explorer *

Software framework In computer programming, a software framework is a software abstraction that provides generic functionality which developers can extend with custom code to create applications. It establishes a standard foundation for building and deploying soft ...

Other uses in computing and telecommunications

Frame (artificial intelligence) Frames are an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations". They were proposed by Marvin Minsky in his 1974 article "A Framework for Representing Knowledge". Frames are ...

, machine-usable formalizations of concepts or schemata that can be used for knowledge representation *

Frame (networking) A frame is a digital data transmission unit in computer networking and telecommunications. In packet switched systems, a frame is a simple container for a single network packet. In other telecommunications systems, a frame is a repeating structur ...

, a data transmission unit or network packet that includes frame synchronization information *

Distribution frame In telecommunications, a distribution frame is a passive device which terminates cables, allowing arbitrary interconnections to be made. For example, the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) located at a telephone exchange, telephone central office te ...

, in telecommunications *

Mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

Page frame A page, memory page, or virtual page is a fixed-length contiguous block of virtual memory, described by a single entry in a page table. It is the smallest unit of data for memory management in an operating system that uses virtual memory. Simila ...

, an available chunk of memory *

Stack frame In computer science, a call stack is a stack data structure that stores information about the active subroutines and inline blocks of a computer program. This type of stack is also known as an execution stack, program stack, control stack, run- ...

, a part of a call stack *A data structure in

frame language Frames are an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations". They were proposed by Marvin Minsky in his 1974 article "A Framework for Representing Knowledge". Frames are ...

s *

Frame problem In artificial intelligence, with implications for cognitive science, the frame problem describes an issue with using first-order logic to express facts about a robot in the world. Representing the state of a robot with traditional first-order logi ...

, in artificial intelligence *Framing, the application of networking frames using

frame synchronization In telecommunications, frame synchronization or framing is the process by which, while receiving a stream of fixed-length frames, the receiver identifies the frame boundaries, permitting the data bits within the frame to be extracted for decodin ...

* Frame technology (software engineering), a models-to-code system based on adaptable frames

Other sciences

Filters, random fields, and maximum entropy model In the domain of physics and probability, the filters, random fields, and maximum entropy (FRAME) model is a Markov random field model (or a Gibbs distribution) of stationary spatial processes, in which the energy function is the sum of translatio ...

(FRAME), in physics and probability *

Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments In October 2024, Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME) changed their name to Replacing Animal Research. Replacing Animal Research is a charity based in Nottingham, UK, they fund and promotes alternatives to animal ...

Frame Overo Lethal white syndrome (LWS), also called overo lethal white syndrome (OLWS), lethal white overo (LWO), and overo lethal white foal syndrome (OLWFS), is an autosomal genetic disorder most prevalent in the American Paint Horse. Affected foals are bo ...

, a coat pattern in horses * Hive frame, a structural element that holds honeycomb *

Reading frame In molecular biology, a reading frame is a specific choice out of the possible ways to read the nucleic acid sequence, sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) molecule as a sequence of triplets. Where these triplets equate to amino ...

, which divides a sequence of nucleotides into a set of consecutive, non-overlapping triplets *

Frameshift mutation A frameshift mutation (also called a framing error or a reading frame shift) is a genetic mutation caused by indels ( insertions or deletions) of a number of nucleotides in a DNA sequence that is not divisible by three. Due to the triplet natur ...

, when a single base-pair is added to a DNA string, causing incorrect transcription *

Frame analysis Frame analysis (also called framing analysis) is a multi-disciplinary social science research method used to analyze how people understand situations and activities. Frame analysis looks at images, stereotypes, metaphors, actors, messages, and mor ...

, a social science research method used to analyze how people understand situations and activities * FRAMES, methods of brief intervention against alcohol misuse *

Framing (social sciences) In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies organize, perceive, and communicate about reality. Framing can manifest in cognition, thought or interpersonal c ...

, in communication theory and sociology, relating to the contextual presentation of media content

Arts and media

Film and television

* "Frame" (''Law & Order: Criminal Intent''), a 2008 episode of the TV series ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' * ''The Frame'' (film), a 2014 American science fiction film * Frames Production, an Indian multifaceted production company

Literature

Frame story A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...

, a narrative technique, for telling stories within a story * ''Frame'' (design magazine), a design magazine from the Netherlands *''Frame (1971–1990)'', a book of collected poetry by

Barrett Watten Barrett Watten (born October 3, 1948) is an American poet, editor, and educator associated with the Language poets. He is a professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, where he teaches modernism and cultural stu ...

, published in 1997

Music

The Frames The Frames are an Irish rock band based in Dublin. Founded in 1990 by Glen Hansard, the band has been influential in the Dublin rock music scene. The group has released six studio albums. In addition to Hansard, the band's current line-up inc ...

, an Irish band * ''Frames'' (Oceansize album), a 2007 album by Oceansize * ''Frames'' (Leee DeWyze album), a 2013 album by Leee DeWyze

Visual arts

* ''The Frame'' (painting), by Frida Kahlo

Other uses

Frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

, in the game of snooker *

, in the game of bowling *

, in the game of baseball *

Frame (dance) In ballroom dancing and other dances, frame is the way the dancers' upper bodies are held when in dancing position. In swing and blues dances, frame is the body shape and muscle tone maintained by dancers, which allows the leader to communicate ...

, either of two concepts in partner dancing * Frame (surname) * Frame, West Virginia, an unincorporated community, United States *Frame of government, a descriptive term synonymous with

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

Frame of Government of Pennsylvania The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania was a proto-constitution for the Province of Pennsylvania, a proprietary colony granted to William Penn by Charles II of England. The Frame of Government has lasting historical importance as an important s ...

, the first colonial constitution of Pennsylvania, written by William Penn **Delegates to the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention, are sometimes called the "Framers," as they were framing a form of government *

Frameup In the United States criminal law, a frame-up (frameup) or setup is the act of falsely implicating (framing) someone in a crime by providing fabricated evidence or testimony. In British usage, to frame, stitch up, or fit-up, is to maliciously ...

, to make an innocent party appear guilty of someone else's crime * French Regional & American Museums Exchange (FRAME), an alliance of French and American art museums * Frame (psychotherapy) *

Dubai Frame The Dubai Frame () is an observatory, museum and monument in Zabeel Park, Dubai. It holds the record for the largest frame in the world. The building has a height of 150.24 meters and a width of 95.53 meters. The building mainly serves as an obs ...

, a building in Dubai, UAE