services

The word “services” means a roadside stop offering fuel, food, and rest areas for travellers (chiefly UK usage). In plain terms, a stop along a motorway with petrol, food, and toilets.

“Services” is pronounced SUR-vih-sihz (/ˈsɝ.vɪ.sɪz/ in IPA).

Here is “services” used in a sentence: “We pulled into the services for a coffee and a break.”

“Services” is a noun.

“Services” is a very common word in modern English.

In British usage, services — short for motorway services — is a roadside stop built for travellers on a long journey. It typically offers fuel, food outlets, toilets, parking and rest areas, and often shops, cash machines and electric-vehicle charging. Drivers pull in to refuel, eat and take a break before continuing.

In Britain the two overlap, but services usually means the larger roadside complex with food, toilets, shops and rest areas as well as fuel. A service station, or petrol station, is chiefly the smaller forecourt where you buy fuel. All motorway services include fuel, but not every fuel station counts as services.

A typical stop offers petrol and diesel, increasingly electric-vehicle chargers, plus toilets, cafés and fast-food outlets, a shop or two, cash machines and plenty of parking. Larger sites may also have a hotel, picnic areas and children's play areas, all aimed at helping travellers rest and refuel on a long drive.

This meaning is chiefly British. In the United Kingdom you 'stop at the services' on the motorway. American English instead uses rest stop, rest area, service plaza or travel plaza for the equivalent roadside facilities, so the word services in this sense can puzzle visitors from the US.