infrastructure

American  

[in-fruh-struhk-cher] / ˈɪn frəˌstrʌk tʃər /

noun

1. the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools.

   Investments in infrastructure helped the U.S. economy recover from the Great Depression.

2. the basic, underlying framework or features of a system or organization.

   Over the years, as the incidence of cancer increased, the infrastructure of the hospital was developed to accommodate the new cases.

   Synonyms:

   support, foundation, basis

3. the military installations of a country.

   We could do much with just a fraction of the billions spent to maintain our robust overseas infrastructure.

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infrastructure British  

/ ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃə /

noun

1. the basic structure of an organization, system, etc

2. the stock of fixed capital equipment in a country, including factories, roads, schools, etc, considered as a determinant of economic growth

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Other Word Forms

• infrastructural adjective

Etymology

Origin of infrastructure

First recorded in 1925–30; infra + structure

Example Sentences

A third administration official who attended the summit, Marci McCarthy, directs communications for the nation’s cyber defense agency, which oversees the security of elections infrastructure like voting machines.

From Salon

Morgan Stanley analysts say in a report that this indicates Amazon is being patient about its move into agentic shopping, given its advantages in inventory, infrastructure, and innovation.

From The Wall Street Journal

Pockets of lodging strength also help illustrate what’s driving the U.S. economy lately: AI infrastructure investment.

From The Wall Street Journal

In Gulf cities and the Omani port of Duqm, Iranian strikes continued to hit oil and gas infrastructure and as European markets opened the benchmark Brent crude price jumped again.

From Barron's

And Chris Weston at Pepperstone added: "With the Strait of Hormuz temporarily constrained, the longer the disruption persists, the greater the risk that additional facilities and infrastructure across the Gulf region may be forced offline."

From Barron's

Related Words

• base
• framework