Wiktionary

motorway

English

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The M3 / M25 motorway interchange in Surrey, England

Etymology

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From motor +‎ way.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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motorway (plural motorways)

  1. (UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Queensland, New South Wales) A highway with grade-separated crossings (rather than level crossings) and designed (and only permitted) for high-speed motor-traffic (in Europe motor vehicles with a higher speed limit than 40 km/h) running in two directions on one separate carriageway each.
    Synonyms: (in parts of Australia, Canada and the U.S.) freeway, (in Malaysia, Singapore and parts of North America) expressway, (in parts of North America where freeway is unused) highway, (chiefly in Quebec and France) autoroute
    • 1895 October, “Real Estate”, in California Banker's Magazine, page 429:
      All the R. R.'s of America will have to be furnished with a biking way and a motor way on each side of the rails.
    • 1913 September 20, Good Roads, page 137:
      Work of constructing the Texas Motorway, a stone highway which when completed will extend from Fort Worth to Del Rio, Tex., a distance of 500 miles, has been commenced and a section between 18 and 20 miles long running out from Glenrose, the county seat of Somervell County, has been completed.
    • 1925 December, C. L. Norton, “Our Industrial Highways”, in Trade Winds, volume 4, number 10:
      It is presumed that in the working out of the program the motor trucks will automatically have the major use of the local low-speed highways paralleling the motorway.
    • 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:
      In 1959, Ernest Marples became the new Minister of Transport. His business career had been as a road builder and he saw the future in a network of motorways, whereas he believed there was serious overcapacity in the railway network.
    • 2001 June, Jim Brewer, John German, ..., “Geometric Design Practices for European Roads”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], Office of International Programs, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington:
      One national agency is responsible for developing and maintaining the national motorway system, which typically is a small fraction of the entire roadway network. (page 8)
    • 2021 May 21, “Turkey opens last section of new highway connecting Asia to Europe”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[2], Daily Sabah:
      An alternative transit route that bypasses the metropolis’ traffic-filled streets, the 400-kilometer (248.5-mile) North Marmara Motorway starts on the western side of Istanbul and ends in the eastern Marmara province of Sakarya.
    • 2023 July 12, “Electric vehicle charging stations to be installed every 60 km on European motorways”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[3], The Brussels Times:
      Charging stations for electric vehicles must be placed along the main European motorways at least every 60 kilometres from 2026, the European Parliament decided on Tuesday.
  2. (chiefly US) A racetrack venue designated especially for the sport of auto racing.
    Synonyms: (motor) speedway, motospeedway
    • 2018, Paul R. Wonning, A Year of Indiana History Stories‎[4], volume 1, Greensburg, Indiana: Mossy Feet Books, page 250:
      In December, track operators replaced the crushed rock with brick, earning the motorway the nickname, Brickyard.
    • 2020 July 13, Jeff Olson, “Race To Develop Automotive, Safety Technology Never Stops at IMS”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[5], Indianapolis Motor Speedway, archived from the original on 16 December 2021:
      The 9-degree banking you see in the Speedway’s four turns is believed to be the first intentionally banked motorway in the United States.

Derived terms

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Translations

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