highway

The word “highway” means a main road, especially a large, fast public road built for long-distance travel. In plain terms, a big, important road meant for fast, long-distance travel.

“Highway” is pronounced HAHY-wehy (/ˈhaɪweɪ/ in IPA).

Here is “highway” used in a sentence: “We took the highway to avoid the city traffic.”

“Highway” is a noun.

The word “highway” comes from Old English. From Old English hēahweġ, literally "high way" — a raised, major road built above the surrounding land, distinguished from smaller local tracks.

“Highway” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Highway” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a main road, especially a large, fast public road built for long-distance travel.

A highway is any major public road for long-distance travel. A freeway, or motorway in Britain, is a specific type of highway with no traffic lights or intersections, using ramps and overpasses so traffic never stops. Every freeway is a highway, but many highways are ordinary roads with junctions.

A street is a public road within a town or city, usually lined with buildings and meant for local access. A highway is a larger main road built to carry traffic quickly over long distances between places. Streets serve neighbourhoods; highways connect towns and regions.

In Britain, a large fast highway is a motorway; in the United States and elsewhere, freeway, expressway, interstate and thruway all name similar high-speed roads. More general terms include main road, trunk road and carriageway. The right word often depends on the country.

The "high" in highway does not mean elevated. It comes from an old sense of "high" meaning main, chief or public — the principal public road, as opposed to minor lanes and byways. The same idea survives in "the high street," the main shopping road of a British town.