highway

English

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Etymology

From Middle English heiȝwai, heiȝwei, from Old English hēahweġ (“main road, highway”), corresponding to high +‎ way:

• Old English hēah (“of great height, tall”), from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kowkos (“hill”) +
• Old English weġ (“road, path”), from Proto-Germanic *wegaz, from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move”).

Cognate with Scots heaway, heway, hieway, hichway, heichway (“highway”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈhaɪweɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -aɪweɪ

Noun

highway (plural highways)

1. A main, direct public road, especially a multi-lane, high speed thoroughfare connecting major population centers.
2. (rail transport) Any public road for vehicular traffic.

Hyponyms

• (main public road): expressway, motorway

Translations

main public road

• Arabic: طريق (ar) (tariiq) m, طريق عام (ar) (Tariiq `aamm) m
• Armenian: խճուղի (xč̣uġi)
• Bulgarian: автомагистрала (bg) (ávtomagistrála) f, автострада (bg) (ávtostráda) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 公路 (cmn) (gōnglù)

• Czech: dálnice (cs)
• Danish: motorvej (da)
• Dutch: autosnelweg m, autostrade f, snelweg (nl) m
• Esperanto: ŝoseo (eo)
• Finnish: päätie (fi), valtatie (fi)
• French: grande route f
• Georgian: გზატკეცილი (ka) (gzatketsili)
• German: Autobahn (de) f
• Greek: αυτοκινητόδρομος (el) (aftokinitódromos) m
• Hebrew: כְּבִיש מַהִיר (kvish mahir), אוטוסטרדה (otostrada)
• Hungarian: autópálya (hu), országút (hu)
• Icelandic: hraðbraut (is) f, þjóðvegur (is) m
• Irish: mórbhealach (ga) m, mórbhóthar (ga) m
• Italian: strada maestra f
• Japanese: 公道 (ja) (こうどう, kōdō), 街道 (ja) (かいどう, kaidō), 公路 (ja) (こうろ, kōro)

• Jèrriais: grand'c'mîn m
• Khmer: ផ្លូវធំ (km)
• Korean: 공로 [公路] (gongro)
• Lojban: dargu (jbo)
• Luxembourgish: Schnellstrossen (lb)
• Malay: jalan raya (ms), lebuh raya (ms)
• Manx: ard-raad (gv) m
• Norwegian: motorvei (no), motorveg (no)
• Persian: بزرگراه (bozorgrâh)
• Polish: autostrada (pl) f
• Portuguese: rodovia (pt) f
• Romanian: autostradă (ro) f, șosea (ro)
• Russian: (indeclinable) шоссе (ru) (šossé) n, магистраль (ru) (magistrál’) f, автострада (ru) (avtostráda) f
• Slovene: avtocesta f
• Spanish: carretera (es) f
• Swedish: motorväg (sv) c
• Turkish: otoyol (tr), otoban (tr), anayol (tr)
• Welsh: priffordd (cy) f

See also

• hwy.