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

Concerns remain about an AI bubble and big tech’s colossal investments in AI infrastructure, and the technology still spews out reams of inaccurate information.

From MarketWatch

"Everyone has the right to have fun in the snow", but "limiting the number is right because the town can't accommodate 50,000 people. It has no facilities, no infrastructure", he said.

From Barron's

Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu has brushed off concerns about an AI investment bubble, telling investors the company will invest “aggressively” in AI infrastructure because demand reflects real adoption rather than hype.

From Barron's

Under the current system, rail infrastructure is managed by the publicly owned organisation Network Rail - while passenger train services are run by individual operators which are both privately and publicly-owned.

From BBC

Great British Railways is a new publicly owned company that will have integrated management of not only the day-to-day running of the trains but also the infrastructure, the tracks and the signalling.

From BBC

Related Words

• base
• framework