cul-de-sac

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

French cul-de-sac, from cul (“bottom”) + de (“of”) + sac (“bag, sack”)

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

cul-de-sac (plural cul-de-sacs or culs-de-sac)

1. A blind alley or dead end street.
2. (US): A circular area at the end of a dead end street to allow cars to turn around, designed so children can play on the street, with little or no through-traffic.
3. An impasse.
   • 2005,, National Review: 

     Physics seems, in fact, to have got itself into a cul-de-sac, obsessing over theories so mathematically abstruse that nobody even knows how to test them.

4. (medicine) A sack-like cavity or tube open at one end only.

Translations

blind alley

Armenian: փակուղի (hy) (pʿakułi) Catalan: cul-de-sac (ca) m., atzucac (ca) m., carreró sense sortida (ca) m., carreró sense eixida (ca) m. Croatian: slijepa ulica (hr) f. Czech: slepá ulička (cs) f. Danish: blind vej (da) c., blindgade (da) c., blindgyde (da) c. Dutch: beluik (nl) m. Finnish: umpikuja (fi)

French: cul-de-sac (fr) m., impasse (fr) f. German: Sackgasse (de) f. Hungarian: zsákutca (hu) Icelandic: botnlangi (is) m., blindgata (is) f., botngata (is) f. Japanese: 袋小路 (ja) Portuguese: rua sem saída (pt) f. Russian: тупик (ru) (tupík) m. Spanish: callejón (es) m., calle sin salida (es) f. Turkish: çıkmaz sokak (tr)

circular area at the end of a dead end street

German: Wendeplatte (de) f., Wendekreis (de) m.

Portuguese: rotatória no fim de uma rua (pt) f.

impasse

Danish: blindgyde (da) c. Finnish: umpikuja (fi) French: impasse (fr) f.

German: Sackgasse (de) f. Hungarian: zsákutca (hu) Portuguese: impasse (pt) m.

medicine: a sacklike cavity or tube

Icelandic: blindpoki (is) m.

Russian: слепой мешок (ru) (slepój mešók) m.

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French

Wikipedia ^fr

Pronunciation

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Noun

cul-de-sac m.

1. dead end (a path that goes nowhere)

This French entry was created from the translations listed at dead end. It may be less reliable than other entries, and may be missing parts of speech or additional senses. Please also see cul-de-sac in the French Wiktionary. This notice will be removed when the entry is checked. (more information) July 2010