Roadway
nounThe part of a road or street used by vehicles, as distinct from the pavement or verge.
How to spell roadway
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce roadway
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does roadway mean?
- nounThe part of a road or street used by vehicles, as distinct from the pavement or verge.
Roadway in a sentence
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Workers resurfaced the roadway overnight to avoid traffic.
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A fallen branch blocked the roadway after the storm.
Where does roadway come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Roadway is a compound built from two native English words, 'road' and 'way', both with deep Germanic roots. 'Road' comes from the Old English rad, which originally meant 'a riding' or 'a journey on horseback', closely tied to the verb ridan, 'to ride'; only later did it come to mean the prepared track itself. 'Way' comes from the Old English weg, meaning a path or course of travel, related to the verb 'to wend' and to the idea of movement. The two were joined to name specifically the part of a road on which vehicles travel, distinct from a footpath or verge. The compound appears in English from around the sixteenth century, and because both elements are plain everyday words, its spelling is refreshingly transparent.
How the word is built
- road (from Old English rad: a riding, a journey)
- -way (path, route)
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