subway

The word “subway” means an underground railway system used for urban public transport. In plain terms, an underground train system, or (mainly in British English) an underground walkway.

“Subway” is pronounced SUHB-way (/ˈsʌbˌweɪ/ in IPA).

Here is “subway” used in a sentence: “She takes the subway to work every morning.”

Words with a similar meaning to “subway” include metro, Métro, tube, underground, underground railway and rapid transit.

“Subway” is a noun.

“Subway” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

“Subway” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: an underground railway system used for urban public transport.

All three can name an underground urban railway; the difference is mostly regional. "Subway" is the usual American term, "the Underground" (or "the Tube") is British, and "metro" is common across Europe and much of the world. They all describe the same kind of rapid-transit system.

No. In American English a subway is an underground railway system for urban transport, like the New York City Subway. In British English "subway" usually means an underground pedestrian tunnel for crossing beneath a road; the railway is called the Underground, the Tube, or the metro.

Both can be passages beneath a road. In British English a "subway" is specifically an underground walkway for pedestrians, while an "underpass" may carry either pedestrians or vehicles under another route. In American English "subway" almost always means the underground railway instead.

In the American sense, yes — it is an underground urban railway, exactly what Americans call a subway. But Britons do not call it that: locally it is "the Underground" or "the Tube," and in Britain a "subway" is a pedestrian tunnel under a road.