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Inroad is a combination of in and road, both of which are pretty mundane, as far as words go. But the first-and-oldest-meaning of inroad hints at a meaning of road other than the "way for traveling" one. Beginning back in the days of Old English, road referred to an armed hostile incursion made on horseback. (Raid comes from this use of road and also formerly specified incursions on horseback.) Road, as well as inroad, has lost its violent connotation. While inroads are often made at the expense of someone or something, they are at times simply advances, as when an artist is said to be "making inroads into a community."
Examples of inroad in a Sentence
Tax Notes Staff, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
Republicans made inroads in campus-heavy voting wards in 2024, a Journal Sentinel analysis found.
—Anna Kleiber, jsonline.com, 4 Aug. 2025
Peter Nelson – 7:54 AM | 36 After just five years, Microsoft will end support for low-cost Windows 11 SE
Windows 11 SE was made for school laptop fleets where ChromeOS has made inroads.
—Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 2 Aug. 2025
Around the same time, Bigsby started making inroads into affluent communities.
—Brad Schmitt, The Tennessean, 2 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for inroad
Cite this Entry
“Inroad.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inroad. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.
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