infrastructure

Borrowed from French infrastructure, equivalent to infra- +‎ structure.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃɚ/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (US)

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infrastructure (countable and uncountable, plural infrastructures)

1. (systems theory) An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system. [from 1887]

   Synonyms: underbuilding, underframework

   Hyponym: Common Language Infrastructure

   The parasitic tyranny's infrastructure depends on secrecy in order to be effective.

2. The basic facilities, services and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society.
   • 2015, Tim Carvell [et al.], “Infrastructure”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 4, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:

     Infrastructure: It's our roads, bridges, dams, levees, airports, power grids... basically, anything that can be destroyed in an action movie... The problem is, though, when our infrastructure is not being destroyed by robots and/or saved by Bruce Willis we tend to find it a bit boring.

• e-infrastructure
• non-infrastructure, noninfrastructure

• infrastructure on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From infra- +‎ structure.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.fʁas.tʁyk.tyʁ/

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infrastructure f (plural infrastructures)

1. infrastructure (an underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system) [from 1875]

• “infrastructure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.