Roads

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɹoʊdz/

Definitions

1. A series of paved or unpaved surfaces that serve to link different locations for transit and travel purposes
2. Surfaces designed to connect various places, facilitating the movement of vehicles and travelers
3. Routes prepared for transportation, allowing cars and other vehicles to pass from one location to another

Etymology: The most surprising fact is that "road" once meant a ride, not a path. Its Old English ancestor "rād" meant "riding" and could even refer to a hostile raid, and the same root gives us "raid," which came into English from Scots. A journey on horseback was the original sense, and the path sense developed later, when the word for a trip began to name the route you traveled. The sense of "road" as a street or way for traveling is comparatively late. Shakespeare seems to have expected his audiences to find it unfamiliar, which suggests the usage was still new in his day. It probably grew out of "roadway," meaning "a way for riding on," by reinterpretation: speakers heard "road" as meaning "way," so the compound effectively said "way" twice, a tautology that nonetheless caught on. "Roads" is simply the plural of this noun, so it refers to several such routes at once.

Synonyms: streets, highways, routes

Antonyms: off-road, wilderness