information superhighway

American  

[in-fer-mey-shuhn soo-per-hahy-wey] / ˌɪn fərˈmeɪ ʃən ˈsu pərˌhaɪ weɪ /

1. a large-scale communications network providing a variety of often interactive services, as text databases, email, and audio and video materials, accessed through computers, television sets, etc.

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information superhighway British  

noun

1. the concept of a worldwide network of computers capable of transferring all types of digital information at high speed

2. another name for the internet

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information superhighway Cultural  

1. A term that describes all of the infrastructure, including cable, satellites, and assorted hardware, that allows information to be transferred at great speed over large distances to all people.

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The term implies an analogy between the construction of an information infrastructure in the Internet age with the construction of the interstate highway system constructed in the last half of the twentieth century.

Etymology

Origin of information superhighway

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

The dot-com boom in the 1990s has some similarities because it spurred a wave of companies to go public, helping finance a massive investment in infrastructure, the so-called information superhighway.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026

I still recall the promise of new-millennium digital iconography, when knowledge fused with access, and posters with images of kids surfing on textbooks down the information superhighway adorned school computer rooms.

From Salon • Apr. 12, 2026

Google instead wants to blitz you with buggy new gizmos whose basic functionalities lack everything that made Google an empire, a verb, a dependable custodian of the information superhighway.

From Slate • May 16, 2024

Because the spinal cord is the information superhighway connecting the brain with the body, damage to the spinal cord can lead to paralysis.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Apparently, Mom has forgotten that school is like an information superhighway.

From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz