Lane

How to spell lane

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lane

What does lane mean?

1. nounA narrow road or path, or a marked strip kept for a single line of traffic, runners, or swimmers.

Lane in a sentence

• The cottage sits at the end of a quiet country lane.

• The lorry drifted into the fast lane on the motorway.

Where does lane come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Lane comes from the Old English word lanu, which meant a narrow path, track, or passage running between hedges or houses. It belongs to a small family of related words in the early Germanic languages, including the Old Frisian lana and the Dutch laan, which still means an avenue. The original sense was very practical: a way too narrow for broad travel, often hemmed in by fields or buildings, and this rural sense survives in place names like Penny Lane and Drury Lane. Over the centuries the meaning widened to cover any marked strip kept for a single line of movement, such as a traffic lane on a road, a swimming lane in a pool, or a bowling lane. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for a thousand years, and the chief trap for a writer is simply its homophone lain, the past participle of lie, which sounds identical but is spelled with an i.

How the word is built

• lane (single root from Old English lanu, a narrow path)