Standard Lemma guide

motorway

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈməʊtəweɪ/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /ˈməwtəwɛj/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Ireland, New-South-Wales, New-Zealand, UK

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: freeway, expressway, highway, autoroute

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A racetrack venue designated especially for the sport of auto racing.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: (motor) speedway, motospeedway

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: expressway, freeway, pike, state highway, superhighway, throughway, thruway

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: highway, main road

Narrower terms: autobahn, autostrada, turnpike, toll road

History

Etymology

From motor + way.

Across languages

Translations

111 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: snelweg — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Albanian: autostradë — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Arabic: أُوتُوسْتْرَاد (ʔutustrād) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Arabic: طَرِيق سَرِيع (ṭarīq sarīʕ) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Armenian: ավտոմայրուղի (avtomayruġi) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Azerbaijani: avtomagistral — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Azerbaijani: avtomaqistral — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Azerbaijani: avtostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Basque: autobide — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Belarusian: аўтамагістра́ль (awtamahistrálʹ) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Bengali: ফ্রিওয়ে (phriōẇe) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Bulgarian: а́втомагистра́ла (ávtomagistrála) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Catalan: autopista — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Catalan: autovia — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Chinese Mandarin: 高速公路 (gāosù gōnglù) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Chinese Mandarin: 快速公路 (kuàisù gōnglù) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Czech: dálnice — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Danish: motorvej — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Dutch: snelweg — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Dutch: autosnelweg — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Esperanto: aŭtovojo — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Estonian: maantee — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Extremaduran: autopista — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Finnish: moottoritie — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • French: autoroute — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • West-Frisian: autodyk — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Galician: autoestrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Georgian: ავტომაგისტრალი (avṭomagisṭrali) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Georgian: ავტოსტრადა (avṭosṭrada) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • German: Autobahn — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • German: Kraftfahrstraße — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • German: autobahn — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Greek: αυτοκινητόδρομος υπερταχείας κυκλοφορίας (aftokinitódromos ypertacheías kykloforías) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Greek: δρόμος χωρίς διόδια (drómos chorís diódia) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Hindi: द्रुतमार्ग (drutmārg) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Hungarian: autópálya — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Hungarian: autósztráda — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Icelandic: hraðbraut — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Indonesian: jalan bebas hambatan terkendali — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Irish: mótarbhealach — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Italian: autostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Japanese: 高速道路 (kōsoku dōro) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Japanese: 自動車道 (jidōshadō) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Kazakh: автомагистраль (avtomagistral) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Kazakh: автострада (avtostrada) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Korean: 고속도로 (gosokdoro) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Kyrgyz: автомагистраль (avtomagistral) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Kyrgyz: автострада (avtostrada) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Lao: ທາງດ່ວນ (thāng dūan) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Latin: autovia — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Latvian: automaģistrāle — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Latvian: autostrāde — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Lithuanian: automagistralė — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Lithuanian: autostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Luxembourgish: Autobunn — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Macedonian: автопат (avtopat) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Malay: lebuh raya — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Neapolitan: autostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Norman: autoroute — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Norman: motoroute — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Norwegian: motorvei — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Norwegian Bokmål: motorvei — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: motorveg — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Occitan: autorota — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Persian: آزادراه (âzâdrâh) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Persian: اتوبان (otobân) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Piedmontese: autostrà — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Polish: autostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Portuguese: autoestrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Romanian: autostradă — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: автостра́да (avtostráda) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: автомагистра́ль (avtomagistrálʹ) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: автоба́н (avtobán) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: фри́вей (frívej) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: фриве́й (frivéj) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: магистра́ль (magistrálʹ) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Russian: шоссе (šosse) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Scots: motorwey — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Serbo-Croatian: аутоцѐста — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Serbo-Croatian: а̀утопӯт — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Serbo-Croatian: autocèsta — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Serbo-Croatian: àutopūt — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Silesian: autobana — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Slovak: diaľnica — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Slovene: avtocesta — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Spanish: autopista — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Spanish: autovía — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Swedish: motorväg — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Tajik: автомагистрал (avtomagistral) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Tajik: автострада (avtostrada) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Thai: ทางด่วน (taang-dùuan) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Thai: มอเตอร์เวย์ (mɔɔ-dtə̂ə-wee) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Turkish: otoyol — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Turkish: otoban — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Turkmen: awtomagistral — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Turkmen: awtostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Ukrainian: автостра́да (avtostráda) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Ukrainian: автомагістра́ль (avtomahistrálʹ) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Ukrainian: магістра́ль (mahistrálʹ) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Ukrainian: автоба́н (avtobán) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Uzbek: avtomagistral — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Uzbek: avtostrada — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Veps: avtomagistralʹ — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Vietnamese: đường cao tốc — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Vietnamese: đường ô tô chính — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Vietnamese: đường trục ô tô — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Walloon: otostråde — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Walloon: otovoye — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Walloon: otorote — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Welsh: traffordd — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
  • Yiddish: אויטאָסטראַט (oytostrat) — highway designed for high-speed motor-traffic
Real reading context

motorway in complete knowledge articles