cul-de-sac
Americannoun
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culs-de-sac,
plural
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cul-de-sacs
plural
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a street, lane, etc., closed at one end; blind alley; dead-end street.
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any situation in which further progress is impossible.
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the hemming in of a military force on all sides except behind.
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Anatomy. a saclike cavity, tube, or the like, open only at one end, as the cecum.
noun
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a road with one end blocked off; dead end
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an inescapable position
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any tube-shaped bodily cavity or pouch closed at one end, such as the caecum
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cul-de-sac
1730–40; < French: literally, bottom of the sack
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
About half of the homes on their cul-de-sac had children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Their five-bedroom home, which is estimated at about $2 million, is on a quiet cul-de-sac with just five other houses in Hertfordshire, England.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
“Pristine, completely remodeled, two-story warm Contemporary done with great taste and quality at the end of a quiet, flat cul-de-sac street in a desirable Brentwood Hills location,” the description begins.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
Over Mother’s Day weekend, Andy Milheizler’s quiet Atlanta cul-de-sac was overrun with empty Waymo vehicles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
We can keep it in the garage, roll it in front of the house, and play in the cul-de-sac sometimes.
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
Your relative might lose his train of thought; another person’s relative might get stuck in verbal cul-de-sacs of nonsense.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2024
He may have named the cul-de-sacs for his daughter, Helena.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2024
Mr. Biden spoke quickly and precisely, without entering the verbal cul-de-sacs endemic to many of his presidential speeches 28 years later.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2024
His ideas are visible nationwide, residing in meticulously planned cul-de-sacs, in spacious lawns, and in every pitched battle over efforts to build more-inclusive neighborhoods.
From Slate ● Aug. 16, 2023
We were both staring into the inky distance, the cul-de-sacs and quarter-acre lots.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
Today, too many American children cannot safely leave their culs-de-sac.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Better, then, to make shows for television, a medium that is more comfortable with loose ends and narrative culs-de-sac, where he can tell a “continuing story”.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 23, 2018
Martz saw FlexBus as the key to transforming Altamonte, a loose agglomeration of palm tree-lined strip malls and culs-de-sac a few miles north of Orlando, into a thriving and walkable destination.
From The Verge ● Sep. 1, 2016
That Elizabeth Madox Roberts was lost in one of these treacherous literary culs-de-sac became painfully clear to most critics three years ago, when she published her obscure, mystical novel, He Sent Forth a Raven.
From Time Magazine Archive
The boys went through the neighborhood, venturing deep into culs-de-sac and up dark sidewalks to houses that many other kids avoided.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
