in·fra·struc·ture ( n fr -str k chr)n. 1. An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system. 2. The basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society, such as transportation and communications systems, water and power lines, and public institutions including schools, post offices, and prisons. in fra·structur·al adj.Usage Note: The term infrastructure has been used since 1927 to refer collectively to the roads, bridges, rail lines, and similar public works that are required for an industrial economy, or a portion of it, to function. The term also has had specific application to the permanent military installations necessary for the defense of a country. Perhaps because of the word's technical sound, people now use infrastructure to refer to any substructure or underlying system. Big corporations are said to have their own financial infrastructure of smaller businesses, for example, and political organizations to have their infrastructure of groups, committees, and admirers. The latter sense may have originated during the Vietnam War in the use of the word by military intelligence officers, whose task it was to delineate the structure of the enemy's shadowy organizations. Today we may hear that conservatism has an infrastructure of think tanks and research foundations or that terrorist organizations have an infrastructure of people sympathetic to their cause. The Usage Panel finds this extended use referring to people to be problematic, however. Seventy percent of the Panelists find it unacceptable in the sentence FBI agents fanned out to monitor a small infrastructure of persons involved with established terrorist organizations. |
infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃə]
n
1. the basic structure of an organization, system, etc.
2. (Economics) the stock of fixed capital equipment in a country, including factories, roads, schools, etc., considered as a determinant of economic growth
All building and permanent installations necessary for the support, redeployment, and military forces operations (e.g. barracks, headquarters, airfields, communications, facilities, stores, port installations, and maintenance stations). See also bilateral infrastructure; common infrastructure; national infrastructure.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. |  infrastructure - the basic structure or features of a system or organizationsystem - instrumentality that combines interrelated interacting artifacts designed to work as a coherent entity; "he bought a new stereo system"; "the system consists of a motor and a small computer" structure - the manner of construction of something and the arrangement of its parts; "artists must study the structure of the human body"; "the structure of the benzene molecule" |
| 2. | infrastructure - the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area; "the industrial base of Japan" communication equipment, communication system - facility consisting of the physical plants and equipment for disseminating information fire station, firehouse - a station housing fire apparatus and firemen gas system - facility (plant and equipment) for providing natural-gas service main - a principal pipe in a system that distributes water or gas or electricity or that collects sewage penal facility, penal institution - an institution where persons are confined for punishment and to protect the public power grid, power system, grid - a system of high tension cables by which electrical power is distributed throughout a region public works - structures (such as highways or schools or bridges or docks) constructed at government expense for public use school system - establishment including the plant and equipment for providing education from kindergarten through high school sewage system, sewage works, sewer system - facility consisting of a system of sewers for carrying off liquid and solid sewage transportation, transportation system, transit - a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods water supply, water system, water - a facility that provides a source of water; "the town debated the purification of the water supply"; "first you have to cut off the water" |
Translations
infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəstrʌktʃər] n → infrastructure f
Britain's transport infrastructure → l'infrastructure des transports britanniques
telecommunications infrastructure → l'infrastructure des télécommunications
Britain's transport infrastructure → l'infrastructure des transports britanniques
telecommunications infrastructure → l'infrastructure des télécommunications
infrastructure
n → Infrastruktur f
infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃəʳ] n → infrastruttura
infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃəʳ] n → infrastruttura
infrastructure [ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃəʳ] n → infrastruttura
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