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roads

noun

plural of road
1
as in highways
a passage cleared for public vehicular travel I think we should take one of the less congested roads

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in railroads
a roadway overlaid with parallel steel rails over which trains travel the railway companies are continually repairing their roads

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of roads Still, the real test comes when these vehicles deal with everything ordinary roads throw at them. — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 15 Sep. 2026 Diesel long dictated the roads, but electric heavy transport is taking charge. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 15 Sep. 2026 Communities near wildlife areas often rely on motorcycles for transport, especially where roads are poor and alternatives are limited. — ABC News, 14 Sep. 2026 In a wartorn country where air travel is too perilous to even consider, the roads are the obvious option, but are jammed, precarious, and cursed with long, torturous border queues. — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 14 Sep. 2026 Cycling advocates say that removing the lanes will harm not only bicyclists, but also pedestrians and drivers who have to navigate the roads alongside them. — Whitney Eulich, Christian Science Monitor, 14 Sep. 2026 Yemeni government forces have launched airstrikes targeting Houthi reinforcements west of Taiz, several residents of Mokha said, and the Yemeni government military has urged civilians to avoid roads between Taiz and Mokha. — Arkansas Online, 11 Sep. 2026 Now workers are crushing concrete and twisted metal into roads, shelter floors, and spaces for community kitchens. — Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2026 Mokha resident Amin al-Mohammdi said roads from the west coast leading to Mokha were closed and shops were shuttered. — Ahmed Al-Haj, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for roads
  1. highways
  2. railroads
  3. streets
  4. railways
  5. thoroughfares
  6. freeways
  7. routes
  8. expressways
Noun
  • Floodwater continued to cover highways and low-lying areas, disrupting traffic and daily life.
    — Aniruddha Ghosal, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Aitken’s 65-minute installation features multiple characters — played by Natasha Lyonne, Beck, members of the Los Angeles Dance Project and more — moving through settings across America, from deserts and remote mountains to factories and highways.
    — Jem Aswad, Variety, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of highways
Noun
  • Industries like the railroads, finance, steel, coal, and oil.
    — Greg Rosalsky, NPR, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Proponents of the current plan, however, argue the initial schedule will prove that there’s demand for the service, and then the railroads can expand their options later.
    — Daniel C. Vock, Chicago Tribune, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of railroads
Noun
  • AmaWaterways brings guests front row to an exclusive jazz performance in the streets here, where the acoustics haven’t changed in 400 years.
    — Condé Nast Traveler, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Elsewhere, Llínas films the modern-day streets, statues, and buildings where Borges once lived and visited, accompanied by casual pontifications on the author’s values and habits.
    — Sam Bodrojan, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of streets
Noun
  • Uganda then had a large population of Indian immigrants, who had been brought over by the British at the end of the nineteenth century to help construct railways, and who eventually established more economic autonomy and power than Black Ugandans.
    — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2026
  • These have included arson, high-profile hacks, GPS jamming as well as sabotage actions against key infrastructure, including undersea communication cables, logistics centers and railways.
    — Ivana Kottasová, CNN Money, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of railways
Noun
  • Two years later, Wong became one of the key leaders of the city’s Umbrella Movement protests that rallied thousands of predominantly young people to the streets to call for greater democracy by blocking major thoroughfares for 79 straight days.
    — Chris Lau, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The firm, controlled by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, reportedly wants to build a private road connecting one of Yosemite’s main thoroughfares to the company’s 83 acres of land just outside the park.
    — Colson Thayer, PEOPLE, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of thoroughfares
Noun
  • Broadcom paid its former landlord, PRP Real Assets, $325 million for the 660,000-square-foot research campus near the junction of the 5 and 405 freeways in one of the largest office sales in Southern California in recent years.
    — Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Not to mention that traffic on the 101 and 405 freeways demonstrates, without a shadow of a doubt, that people are indeed in their cars on weekends as well.
    — Richard Wagoner, Daily News, 7 Sep. 2026
Definition of freeways
Noun
  • However, their effectiveness can be limited against drones navigating along preprogrammed routes or communicating through fiber-optic cables.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 19 Sep. 2026
  • While Levine Cava’s reductions on late-night routes survived intact in the budget, commissioners agreed to take up the issue again this fall before the cuts took effect this spring.
    — Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of routes
Noun
  • Bikes are not allowed to on freeways or expressways, and cyclists cannot pass through tolls unless the signs nearby dictate otherwise.
    — Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 31 Aug. 2026
  • The firm noted that major bridges like the Donghai Bridge and the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, as well as regional expressways, have reopened with standard speed limits restored.
    — Glenn Taylor, Footwear News, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of expressways

Browse Nearby Words

road rage
roads
roadstead
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Cite this Entry

“Roads.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roads. Accessed 21 Sep. 2026.

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