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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
Franklin Briceño, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026
And the candidates' crime-fighting proposals were not enough to make inroads with voters, many of whom associate each aspiring president with controversial Peruvian politicians.
—ABC News, 8 June 2026
That last point is a major challenge since China has already made some inroads into North America through Mexico and its arrival on the continent is more of an eventuality, according to Robinet.
—Ed Garsten, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty Images American Airlines plans to outfit more than 500 of its narrow-body aircraft with Starlink, handing another win to Elon Musk's SpaceX unit that has made inroads with major carriers for in-flight Wi-Fi.
—Leslie Josephs, CNBC, 26 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for inroad
Cite this Entry
“Inroad.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inroad. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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