infrastructure

[in-fruh-struhk-cher]

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.

infrastructure

/ 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

Other Word Forms

• infrastructural adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of infrastructure¹

First recorded in 1925–30; infra + structure

Example Sentences

Africa, which has been slower to develop internet infrastructure than the rest of the world, is the only region that still has some of the older addresses to dole out.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The suspects' activities, which took place this week in Warsaw and the eastern city of Bialystok, included "transmitting photographic documentation of critical infrastructure and key sites for state security."

Read more on Barron's

Shares of the data-center infrastructure company have been battered by expectations the company will borrow even more to finance its AI business.

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Europe also offers earnings growth, and Germany stands out with infrastructure and defense investments.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Just as Google discovered in the 2010s, Nvidia GPUs remain expensive and in short supply compared with ravenous demand, and no one wants to be reliant on one vendor for AI’s most important infrastructure.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• base 
• framework