interstate
Americanadjective
noun
-
interstates
plural
-
a highway serving two or more states.
-
(sometimes initial capital letter) a highway that is part of the nationwide U.S. Interstate Highway System.
adjective
adverb
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of interstate
Compare meaning
How does interstate compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
If something is interstate, it happens between different U.S. states. For example, you can drive on Interstate 80 from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey. Yep, that's a trip. If you're driving from Rhode Island to Illinois, you can call it interstate travel, or an interstate road trip — you're going from state to state. An interstate highway connects different states together, like I-95, which is an east coast interstate highway that stretches from Maine to Florida. For short, you can call a road like this an interstate. This 20th century word combines inter-, "between," and state.
Vocabulary lists containing interstate
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The Constitution
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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.
See Examples For:
Public prosecutors in America's second biggest city, unhappy about the result, leveled new charges: destruction of property by means of fire and arson affecting property used in interstate commerce.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Most of the people that travel the interstate have been in here. I mean, back in the heyday or whatever, we counted—one day, we had 86 people,” he bragged.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Clough and Dorio are members of California’s advisory senior legislature, and they proposed a bill to allow patients in remission to continue interstate care.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Mangione is also charged in federal court with two counts of interstate stalking and risks the same punishment.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
The navigation app on her phone directed her to turn onto the interstate.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
It’s a breeze to get around, too, with access to major interstates, airports, passenger rail service, as well as water taxis and a bustling cruise ship boarding seaport.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2025
Yet the town's fortunes dwindled as river ports were replaced by trains and then interstates elsewhere.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2024
Or consider the fragmentary effects of America’s interstates, which throttle ecosystems and human communities alike.
From Slate ● May 25, 2024
In Illinois, dust storms led authorities to shut down stretches of two interstates due to low visibility.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2024
I took my time going home, avoiding interstates in favor of back roads.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
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.
