road

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Old English rād (“riding, hostile incursion”), from Proto-Germanic *raidō (“a ride, road”), from Proto-Indo-European *reidh- (“to ride”). Cognate to West Frisian reed (unpaved road).

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: rōd; IPA: /ɹəʊd/; X-SAMPA: /r@Ud/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊd

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: Rhode, rode, rowed

Noun

road (plural roads)

1. A way used for travelling between places, usually surfaced with asphalt or concrete. Modern roads, both rural and urban, are designed to accommodate many vehicles travelling in both directions. [from 16th c.]
   • 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion^[1], page 266:

     In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.

2. (figuratively) A path chosen in life or career. [from 17th c.]
   • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, BBC Sport:

     Hodgson may actually feel England could have scored even more but this was the perfect first step on the road to Rio in 2014 and the ideal platform for the second qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley on Tuesday.

   • Ronald Reagan: A Time for Choosing (1964).

     Where, then, is the road to peace?

3. (nautical, often plural) a partly sheltered area of water near a shore in which vessels may ride at anchor. [from 14th c.]
   • 1630, John Smith, True Travels, in Kupperman 1988, p. 38:

     There delivering their fraught, they went to Scandaroone; rather to view what ships was in the Roade, than any thing else [...].

4. An underground tunnel in a mine. [from 18th c.]
5. (US) a railway; (British) a single railway track. [from 19th c.]

Hyponyms

• See also Wikisaurus:road

Derived terms

Terms derived from the noun road

A road all roads lead to Rome B road back road burn up the road byroad C road corduroy road crossroad down the road end of the road fork in the road Great North road highroad/high road/take the high road hit the road low road middle of the road/middle-of-the-road nonroad offroad/off-road on the road one for the road Persian Royal Road railroad ring road roadability road allowance road apple roadbase roadbed roadblock road case roader road export road fund licence

road gang road hockey road hog/road-hog roadhouse roadie roadkill roadless road map road movie roadness road race road rage road rash roadroller roadrunner roadshow roadside road sign roadstead roadster road to Damascus road train road trip road warrior roadway roadwork roadworks roadworthy rocky road slip road/sliproad Tobacco Road where the rubber meets the road yellow brick road/Yellow Brick Road

Translations

a way for travel

• Afrikaans: pad (af), straat (af), weg (af)
• Ainu: ル (ru)
• Ancient Greek: ὁδός (hodós) f
• Arabic: طَرِيق (ar) (Tariiq) m and f (طُرُق (ar) (Túruq) m pl)

  Egyptian Arabic: طريق (tari2) m

• Armenian: ճանապարհ (hy) (č̣anaparh) , ճամփա (hy) (č̣amp'a) 
• Asturian: camín (ast) m
• Azeri: yol (az)
• Baure: kaye
• Belarusian: дарога (be) (daróha) f 
• Blackfoot: mohsoko
• Breton: hent (br) m
• Bulgarian: път (bg) (pǎt) m 
• Burmese: လမ်း (my) (lan:)
• Catalan: carretera (ca) f
• Chamicuro: ajtini
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 路 (cmn) (lù), 道路 (cmn) (dàolù), 馬路 (cmn), 马路 (cmn) (mǎlù)

• Cree: meskanaw (cr)
• Czech: silnice (cs) f, ulice (cs) f
• Danish: gade (da) c, vej (da) c
• Dutch: baan (nl) f, weg (nl) m, straat (nl) f
• Esperanto: ŝoseo (eo), vojo (eo)
• Estonian: tee (et), maantee (et)
• Faroese: vegur (fo) m
• Finnish: tie (fi)
• French: route (fr) f
• Galician: estrada (gl) f
• Georgian: გზა (ka) (gza) 
• German: Straße (de) f, Straßen (de) pl, Weg (de) m, Route (de) f
• Greek: οδός (el) (odós) f , δρόμος (el) (drómos) m 
• Guaraní: ape (gn), ape guasu (gn), apehũ (gn) (paved with asphalt, lit. "black road")
• Hebrew: כביש (he) (kvish) m
• Hindi: सड़क (hi) (saṛak) f, रास्ता (hi) (rāstā) m, मार्ग (hi) (mārg) m
• Hungarian: út (hu), közút (hu)
• Icelandic: vegur (is) m, gata (is) f, leið (is) f
• Ido: choseo (io), voyo (io)
• Indonesian: jalan (id)
• Interlingua: strata (ia), via (ia)
• Irish: bóthar (ga) m
• Isthmus Zapotec: neza
• Italian: strada (it) f, via (it) f
• Japanese: 道 (ja) (みち, michi)
• Jèrriais: route f
• Kannada: ರಸ್ತೆ (kn) (raste) m
• Kazakh: жол (kk) (jol)
• Korean: 길 (ko) (gil)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ڕێگه‌ (ku) (rrége)

• Lakota: ocanku

• Latgalian: ceļš, saša
• Latin: via (la) f, viae pl; iter (la) n
• Latvian: ceļš (lv) m, šoseja (lv) f
• Lithuanian: kelias (lt) m, plentas (lt) m
• Lojban: dargu (jbo)
• Luhya: engila
• Macedonian: пат (mk) (pat) m, друм (mk) (drum) m, улица (mk) (úlica) f
• Malay: jalan (ms)
• Manx: raad (gv) m
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Ngarrindjeri: yarluke
• Norwegian: vei (no) m, veg (no) m
• Occitan: rota (oc) f
• Ojibwe: miikana, miikanan pl
• Pashto: واټ (ps) (wātt) m
• Persian: راه (fa) (rah), جاده (fa) (jaddeh)
• Polish: droga (pl) f, szosa (pl) f
• Portuguese: estrada (pt) f, caminho (pt) m, via (pt) f
• Powhatan: mew
• Rapa Nui: ara
• Romanian: drum (ro) n, cale (ro) f
• Russian: дорога (ru) (doróga) f , путь (ru) (put') m 
• Scottish Gaelic: rathad (gd) m, slighe (gd) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пут (sh) m, друм (sh) m, цеста (sh) f, улица (sh) f

  Roman: put (sh) m, drum (sh) m, cesta (sh) f, ulica (sh) f

• Slovak: cesta (sk) f, dráha (sk) f
• Slovene: cesta (sl) f
• Sotho: tsela (st), seterata (st)
• Spanish: camino (es) m, calle (es) f, ruta (es) f
• Swahili: njia (sw) sg/pl (noun 9/10), barabara (sw)
• Swedish: väg (sv) c
• Tagalog: kalsada (tl),kalye (tl)
• Taos: p’į́ęna
• Telugu: రహదారి (te) (rahadaari)
• Tetum: lurón
• Thai: ถนน (th) (thà nóhn)
• Tocharian A: ytār
• Tocharian B: ytārye
• Tok Pisin: rot (tpi)
• Tswana: tsela (tn)
• Tupinambá: pé, apé (s-)
• Turkish: cadde (tr), sokak (tr)
• Tuvan: орук (oruk)
• Ukrainian: дорога (uk) (doróha) f , шлях (uk) (šljax) m 
• Urdu: سڑک (ur) (saṛak) f
• Vietnamese: đường (vi)
• Welsh: ffordd (cy) f
• West Frisian: dyk (fy)
• Xhosa: lendlela
• Zulu: umgwaqo (zu) 3/4

a path in life

• Finnish: tie (fi)
• Malay: jalan (ms)
• Persian: راه (fa)

• Russian: путь (ru) (put') m 
• Swahili: barabara (sw)

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: tried · certainly · big · #555: road · husband · blockquote · effect

Anagrams

• Dora
• orad

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Swedish

Etymology

past participle of roa.

Adjective

road

1. amused, entertained

Declension

Inflections of road
Indefinite singular	Common	road
	Neuter	roat
Definite singular	Masc.	roade
	All	roade
Plural		roade

Related terms

• lättroad
• oroad