Words / B1

HYW-ay/ˈhaɪweɪ/

A highway is a main public road. In UK law it also covers public rights of way. The Highway Code is the official road-rules book. Motorway is a specific fast road; street is more urban. Do not call a footpath a highway in casual talk unless you mean the legal sense. Storms block the highway north of a roundabout.

Meaning

A main public road; Highway Code is the UK road-rules book.

Examples

• “A fallen tree blocked the highway north of the roundabout.”
• “Revise the Highway Code before the theory test, which is the rules-book sense.”

Good to know

a highway; the Highway Code. Specific: a motorway. Urban: a street. Legal: public highway. Mix-up: headway (progress).

Near in meaning

road

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