interstate

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

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.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪntɚˌsteɪt/, [ˈɪɾ̃ɚˌsteɪ̯t]

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Audio (US):

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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], 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], 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.

• interstate compact

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.

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], 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.

interstāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of interstō