freeway

[ free-wey ]

noun

1. an express highway with no intersections, usually having traffic routed on and off by means of a cloverleaf.
2. a toll-free highway.

freeway

/ ˈfriːˌweɪ /

noun

1. another name for expressway
2. a major road that can be used without paying a toll

Word History and Origins

Origin of freeway¹

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30; free + way ¹

Example Sentences

Some consider trucking to be an attractive market for a self-driving startup because freeways are a relatively simple environment for software to understand.

From Ars Technica

Before the SkyGuardian was rerouted to the desert, General Atomics had planned to use its technologies to detect speeders on the freeway.

From Voice of San Diego

At night, after his wife, Gail, fell asleep, he sneaked out of the house with his teenage son to drive the empty freeways and cruise by the shuttered brick downtown, letting the cold wind hit his skin.

From ProPublica

Their daily commutes can also be a nightmare, even before they reach the freeway.

From Voice of San Diego

I grew up associating SANDAG with the signs on the side of the freeway.

From Voice of San Diego

He took a secluded road, telling me that avoiding the freeway would save me the tolls.

From The Daily Beast

The word evaporados appears on a wall adjacent to a freeway in a collection of photographs by Eduardo Villanes.

From The Daily Beast

He was coming off of a freeway, and I was hurt pretty badly from somebody driving really fast.

From The Daily Beast

In 1998, a man named Daniel Jones shot himself in the head on live television on a Los Angeles freeway interchange.

From The Daily Beast

He pulled the stolen sedan off the freeway in Tonopah, about 50 miles west of Phoenix.

From The Daily Beast

I folded there, and the next thing I knew, I was on my side in the rubble under the freeway, holding myself and crying.

From Project Gutenberg

Traffic roared up the first short block of Wisconsin from under the high steel freeway down to their left.

From Project Gutenberg

The last flicker of light scudded across the steel sides of the freeway to pick out the lettering above the shop window.

From Project Gutenberg

Here is the railroad overpass, and here is the freeway overpass.

From Project Gutenberg

That's right; in other words, Stemmons Freeway and the service road both go under the underpass.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• artery
• highway
• interstate
• road
• superhighway
• thoroughfare