scaffolding

scaffolding (usually uncountable, plural scaffoldings)

1. A temporary modular system of tubes (or formerly wood) forming a framework used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures.
   • 2007 December 21, The New York Times, “Museum and Gallery Listings”, in New York Times‎:

     […] transparent scaffoldings partially draped with often hallucinatory nets of lines, gouges, hatching and cross-hatching that somehow also depict varying degrees of flesh, features and expression.

2. (programming) Source code etc. that is incomplete and serves as a basis for further development.
3. (figuratively) Any framework or support.

• scaffold
• scaffolder

scaffolding

1. present participle of scaffold