Thoroughway

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A major road or route that permits traffic to pass through an area without obstruction or local interruption
2. A principal pathway or street designed to carry through traffic from one point to another with continuous flow
3. A main thoroughfare or passage that allows vehicles and pedestrians to traverse from one location to another

Etymology: The word is a compound built from two plain English parts: "thorough", an older form of "through," and "way." Its earliest recorded form appears in Middle English as "thurghwei," found in plural spellings such as "thurghweies" and "thorouȝ-weies," showing that the two elements were joined as a single unit long before the modern spelling settled. Its close relative "throughway" follows the same pattern, and the two are doublets: they descend from the same source and ended up as separate words with the same sense. The "thorough" in this compound is the sense of passing from one end to the other, the same meaning it carries in "thoroughfare," a road people pass through.

Synonyms: thoroughfare, passage, route, way