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infrastructure - 5 dictionary results

in⋅fra⋅struc⋅ture

  [in-fruh-struhk-cher]
Use infrastructure in a Sentence
–noun
1. the basic, underlying framework or features of a system or organization.
2. the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools.
3. the military installations of a country.
Origin:
1925–30; infra + structure

Related forms:
in⋅fra⋅struc⋅tur⋅al, adjective

Synonyms:
1. basis, foundation, support.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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in·fra·struc·ture   (ĭn'frə-strŭk'chər)   
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·struc'tur·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.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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infrastructure 
1927, from Fr. (1875), from infra- (q.v.) + structure. The installations that form the basis for any operation or system. Originally in a military sense.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Infrastructure

The basic physical systems of a business or nation.

Investopedia Commentary

Transportation, communication, sewage, water, and electric systems are all a part of infrastructure. These systems tend to be high cost investments however, they are needed for a country to be efficient and productive.

See also: Economies of Scale, Investment, Project Finance

Investopedia.com. Copyright © 1999-2005 - All rights reserved. Owned and Operated by Investopedia Inc.
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infrastructure
Basic support services for computing, particularly national networks.
See also information superhighway.
(1995-06-27)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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