headway
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Partly from Middle English hauedwei, from Old English hēafodweġ (“head-road, main-road”), equivalent to head + way; partly as a shortening of ahead-way, the source of the nautical sense.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]headway (countable and uncountable, plural headways)
- Movement ahead or forward.
- (nautical) Forward motion, or its rate.
- (countable, transport) The interval of time or distance between the fronts of two vehicles (e.g. buses) moving in succession in the same direction, especially along the same pre-determined route.
- 1961 December, “Planning the London Midland main-line electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 719:
- The whole of the main lines to be electrified were being equipped with four-aspect colour-light signals, automatically operated, where appropriate, and spaced to give a 5min headway throughout.
- 2019 October, William Barter, “West Coast capacity study”, in Modern Railways, page 66:
- Sixty minutes divided by the headway gives a potential figure for 'trains per hour' - the simplest possible and most simplistic definition of capacity, termed line capacity.
- (uncountable, figuratively) Progress toward a goal.
- (countable) The clearance beneath an object, such as an arch, ceiling or bridge; headroom.
- 1941 January, the late John Phillimore, “The Forth Bridge 1890-1940”, in Railway Magazine, page 5:
- So as not to impede navigation the two principal spans of the bridge were designed to provide a clear headway of 157 ft. above high water for a distance of 500 ft.; [...].
- (mining) A crossheading.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]clearance beneath an object
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forward motion, or its rate
time or distance interval between the fronts of two vehicles
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progress toward a goal
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “headway”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English compound terms
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Nautical
- en:Transport
- English terms with quotations
- en:Mining