motorcade

English

Pope Benedict XVI traveling in a motorcade.

Etymology

Blend of motor +‎ cavalcade.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌməʊtə(ɹ)ˈkeɪd/, /ˈməʊtə(ɹ)ˌkeɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

motorcade (plural motorcades)

1. A procession of cars carrying VIPs, especially political figures.

   JFK was assassinated in a motorcade.

   • 1994, Herbert L. Abrams, The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 126:

     The aide rides, along with the president's physician, in the “control car,” third in line in the motorcade.

Translations

procession of cars

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 車隊／车队 (zh) (chēduì), 汽車行列／汽车行列 (qìchē hángliè)

• Dutch: autocolonne (nl) f
• Estonian: autokolonn
• Finnish: autokulkue
• French: cortège motorisé m
• Georgian: ავტოკოლონა (avṭoḳolona)
• German: Autokolonne (de) f, Wagenkolonne (de) f
• Greek: αυτοκινητοπομπή (el) f (aftokinitopompí)
• Hungarian: autósor (hu)
• Icelandic: bílalest f
• Italian: corteo di automobili m, corteo di auto m, sfilata di automobili f
• Japanese: 車列 (しゃれつ, sharetsu)
• Polish: parada samochodowa f
• Portuguese: carreata (pt) f (Brazil), cortejo automóvel m (Portugal)
• Russian: автоколо́нна (ru) f (avtokolónna)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: моторизирана пратња f

  Roman: motorizirana pratnja f

• Spanish: caravana (es) f
• Swedish: bilkortege
• Welsh: modurgad m or f

Verb

motorcade (third-person singular simple present motorcades, present participle motorcading, simple past and past participle motorcaded)

1. (intransitive) To travel in a motorcade.
   • 2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 147:

     We then motorcaded to our hotel to change into formal wear […]

Further reading

• “motorcade”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.