superstructure

super- +‎ structure

superstructure (countable and uncountable, plural superstructures)

1. (nautical) Any structure built above the top full deck (FM 55-501).
2. Any material structure or edifice built on something else; that which is raised on a foundation or basis.
3. (sometimes figuratively) All that part of a building above the basement.
4. (Britain, railroad) The sleepers and fastenings, in distinction from the roadbed.
5. (Marxism) The social sphere of ideology which includes religion, art, politics, law and all traditional values.

   Antonym: infrastructure

   • 1995, Richard Appignanesi; Chris Garratt, Postmodernism for Beginners, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 9:

     The superstructure evolves more slowly and is more resistant to change than the economic infrastructure, especially in the modern industrial age of advanced capitalism.

superstructūre

1. vocative masculine singular of superstructūrus