interstate

English

Alternative forms

  • (freeway that is part of the Interstate Highway System): I, IH (Texas), IR (Ohio; rare), Int. (obsolete), ISR (obsolete)

Etymology

From inter- +‎ state, originally as an adjective only; the noun is by (ellipsis) from interstate highway. The noun also serves adjectivally as a (noun adjunct) in such collocations as interstate construction and interstate rest stops.

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɪntɚˌsteɪt/, /ˈɪnɚˌsteɪt/, [ˈɪɾ̃ɚˌsteɪ̯t]
  • Audio (Australia):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

interstate (not comparable)

  1. (chiefly US and Australia) Of, or relating to two or more states.
    Coordinate terms: state ((attributively)), intrastate, intraprovincial; interprovincial; federal; federated; national, nationwide, countrywide; suprastate, supranational; international, transnational, intercountry, continental, transcontinental, intercontinental
    interstate commerce
    interstate reciprocity
    • 1983 April 27, “STATES CAN TRANSFER PRISONERS TO OTHER STATES, COURT HOLDS”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 September 2022:
      The difference between intrastate and interstate prison transfers, Justice Blackmun said, "is a matter of degree, not of kind," while confinement in a mental hospital is qualitatively different than an ordinary prison sentence.
    • 2024 May 16, Casey Gannon, “Pennsylvania man charged with threatening Biden in online video”, in CNN‎[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 23 May 2025:
      Jordan Gee, 37, of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, was charged with three felony counts of threats against the president and one count of interstate threats, according to the Justice Department.

Derived terms

Adverb

interstate (not comparable)

  1. (chiefly US and Australia) Crossing states (usually provincial state, but also e.g. multinational sense).
    The truck driver drove interstate to unload.

Translations

See also

Noun

interstate (plural interstates)

  1. (US) A freeway that is part of the Interstate Highway System.
    • 1987 March 19, Bernard Weinraub, “HOUSE BACKS A SPEED LIMIT OF 65 FOR RURAL INTERSTATES”, in The New York Times‎[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 December 2024:
      The speed-limit increase would not apply to Delaware, where the interstates are all near populated areas.
    • 2013, Robin Wasserman, Seven Deadly Sins, volume 1: Lust; Envy, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 120:
      There was no reason to pull off the interstate and drive twenty miles down a bumpy local road, just to stay in a dilapidated no-tell motel.
    • 2022 October 30, Alaa Elassar, Rebekah Riess, Joe Sutton, “Former California police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Tyrell Wilson won’t be charged”, in CNN‎[4], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 12 November 2022:
      On March 11, 2021, Deputy Andrew Hall with the Danville Police Department responded to an overpass where Wilson was reportedly throwing rocks onto the interstate, according to a Law Enforcement Involved Fatal Incident report released Friday.
Interstate 90 at an interchange with Interstate 271 in Greater Cleveland

Derived terms

Translations

Latin

Verb

interstāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of interstō
This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.