Alley

How to spell alley

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce alley

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does alley mean?

1. nounA narrow lane or passageway, typically between or behind buildings.
2. nounA long, narrow wooden lane down which a ball is rolled in the game of bowling.

Alley in a sentence

• The restaurant kept its bins in the alley behind the kitchen.

• They booked an alley at the bowling centre for the birthday party.

• A stray cat darted down the dark alley beside the pub.

• His ball curved across the polished alley and knocked down every pin.

Where does alley come from?

Language of origin: French

Alley arrived in English in the late 1300s from the Old French word alee, which meant 'a passage' or literally 'a going', a walking place. That noun was formed from the Old French verb aler, meaning 'to go', a verb that most scholars trace back to the Latin ambulare, 'to walk' (the same root that gives us 'amble' and 'ambulance'). The earliest English sense kept this idea of a place for walking, often a path through a garden or between buildings, before settling into the modern meaning of a narrow lane running behind or between houses. The spelling preserves the doubled 'l' and the final 'y' that English added in place of the French 'ee', and it is this ending that keeps alley distinct from its near-twin 'ally'. Bowling later borrowed the word for the long narrow lane down which the ball is rolled.

How the word is built

• alle- (from Old French alee, a walking or passage, from aler 'to go')
• -y