Infrastructures

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The fundamental systems and structures necessary for economic activity include transportation, communication, and utilities
2. Essential facilities and services that support the functioning of a society involve roads, power supply, and sanitation systems
3. The interconnected physical and organizational facilities that enable societal operations comprise transportation networks, water supply, and telecommunication systems

Etymology: "Infrastructures" is simply the plural of "infrastructure," so it names several such systems at once, such as roads, power grids and water mains. The singular entered English as a borrowing from French, where "infrastructure" was formed from "infra-," meaning "below" in Latin, and "structure," meaning a built arrangement. Literally it means the underlying framework that a larger structure rests on, a sense that still shows in its modern use for the foundational networks that everything else depends on.

Synonyms: frameworks, systems, foundations, institutions, networks