interstate
Americanadjective
noun
-
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
- noninterstate adjective
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
Chapter 11: Growth and Expansion
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The Constitution
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I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005
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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.
All the other states, who controlled international and interstate migration, were restrictionist.
From Slate • Mar. 16, 2026
The requested two-year exemption would allow Zoox to make and deploy its vehicles for interstate commerce, according to the application.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 11, 2026
Railroads transformed interstate commerce and fueled economic expansion, but they also produced boom-bust cycles, excess capacity, and intense volatility.
From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026
This is precisely the kind of interstate conflict the Constitution’s framers sought to prevent.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 28, 2025
Getting out of his truck, standing on the side of the interstate that way.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
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.
