interstate

Of, or relating to two or more states.

Adjective

  1. Of, or relating to two or more states.
    • interstate commerce
    • interstate reciprocity
    • 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...

    Coordinate Terms: state intrastate intraprovincial interprovincial federal federated national nationwide countrywide suprastate supranational international

Origin

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.

Forms

I IH IR Int. ISR

Derived

interstate compact

Adverb

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

Forms

I IH IR Int. ISR

Related

Pan-American pan-Indian trans-Siberian

Noun

  1. A freeway that is part of the Interstate Highway System.
    • The speed-limit increase would not apply to Delaware, where the interstates are all near populated areas. - 1987 March 19, Bernard Weinraub, “HOUSE BACKS A SPEED LIMIT OF 65 FOR RURAL INTERSTATES”, in The New York...
    • 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. - 2013, Robin Wasserman, Seven Deadly Sins, volume 1: Lust; Envy, Simon and...

Forms

interstates I IH IR Int. ISR

Derived

interstater