infrastructure
Americannoun
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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.
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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
-
the military installations of a country.
We could do much with just a fraction of the billions spent to maintain our robust overseas infrastructure.
noun
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the basic structure of an organization, system, etc
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the stock of fixed capital equipment in a country, including factories, roads, schools, etc, considered as a determinant of economic growth
Other Word Forms
- infrastructural adjective
Etymology
Origin of infrastructure
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The aviation system, in particular, entered this winter season already weakened, grappling with staffing shortages, aging infrastructure and budget cuts that have limited the federal government’s ability to absorb shocks.
From Salon
Claude doubled down with a “deliberate overweight to semiconductors,” responding that infrastructure names are “where the most durable moats and visible demand trajectories lie.”
From MarketWatch
When backed by cost-effective storage batteries, those alternative energies now provide the quickest, most affordable means to expand electrical infrastructure in developed and developing nations.
From Salon
The joint statement outlines the terms of "de-escalation", which includes ceasing "attacks on civilians, civilian objects and infrastructures, and military objectives of either side".
From BBC
Earlier this year, the island nation reached a controversial deal with China in which it offered to let it explore the seafloor around its territory in return for investments in infrastructure and its fishing industry.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
