information superhighway
6
4.2
- noun
- /ˌɪnfərˈmeɪʃən ˈsuːpərˌhaɪweɪ/
- Archaic
:
autopista de la información
- The information superhighway allows users to access vast amounts of data and multimedia quickly.
Examples
-
Accordingly, the Clinton administration championed what Vice President Gore called the "information superhighway," a thoroughfare to be constructed via the free market rather than the government regulation that had characterized the old progressivism.
Academic text (1997) -
Place metaphors most commonly applied to computer networks include the electronic frontier, cyberspace, and the information superhighway.
Academic text (1997) -
It's the new information superhighway, and pay attention now, kids.
Fiction book (1995) -
This has made it possible to gain access to relevant materials on the information superhighway.
Academic text (2005) -
"The information superhighway," Brown continues, "will present enormous challenges for educational institutions."
Academic text (1994) -
The internet provides an avenue for teachers and students to tap from the fountain of knowledge available in the information superhighway.
Academic text (2006) -
The information superhighway, we are to conclude, will be even more effective in facilitating freedom and democracy.
Academic text (2016) -
For anyone born after 1988, DSL is a technology that ushered the US onto the information superhighway.
Blog text (8) -
Some entire communities now have Freenet computer networks available to all interested citizens, and the information superhighway linking major social service institutions looms ahead.
Academic text (1996) -
Other technologies that hope to have a role on the vaunted information superhighway have yet to become profitable, but nowadays there is little doubt that some will, in a big way.
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
597
1.6
A worldwide network that connects computers so people and businesses can share information
9
4.2
A fast network that carries information like video and sound, often the internet
A worldwide computer network that sends information quickly
How Wide
- Texting
999
1.0
- Archaic
6
4.2
- Specialized
1
3.3
- Specialized
1
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound meaning is directly derivable from 'information' (data/knowledge) combined with 'superhighway' (a very large/high-capacity road): it denotes a high-capacity route for information, i.e. the internet or a large communications network. This road-for-data metaphor is common and predictable across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Information superhighway comes from the picture of a very fast road, a superhighway, where cars move quickly and carry things. People used that picture to show how networks 'move' information fast, so the phrase came to mean 'the internet' and other large systems that send data quickly.