Avenue

How to spell avenue

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce avenue

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does avenue mean?

1. nounA wide street or road in a town or city, often lined with trees.
2. nounA method or means of approaching or achieving something.

Avenue in a sentence

• The hotel sits on a busy avenue near the station.

• The grant opened a new avenue for funding the research.

• They bought a flat on a quiet tree-lined avenue.

• She explored every avenue before agreeing to the deal.

Where does avenue come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the early 1600s straight from French, where avenue was the feminine past participle of the verb avenir, meaning 'to come to' or 'to approach'. That French verb traces back to the Latin advenire, 'to arrive', built from ad, meaning 'to' or 'toward', and venire, meaning 'to come'. The earliest English sense was an approach or way of access, and in particular the grand tree-lined drive leading up to a country house. From that idea of a stately approach it broadened into the modern sense of a wide, often tree-lined city street, and then into the figurative sense of a route or means to some goal, as in an avenue worth exploring. The same venire root still turns up in everyday relatives such as 'convene', 'event', and 'venue', which is a handy reminder that the tricky middle of avenue is spelled v-e-n.

How the word is built

• a- (from Latin ad-: to, toward)
• ven (come, from Latin venire)
• -ue (noun ending via French)