as the crow flies

Cultural  

1. The most direct route between two places: “From here to Gold Bar, it's only ten miles as the crow flies, but twenty miles by the winding mountain road.”

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as the crow flies Idioms  

1. In a straight line, by the shortest route, as in It's only a mile as the crow flies, but about three miles by this mountain road. This idiom is based on the fact that crows, very intelligent birds, fly straight to the nearest food supply. [Late 1700s]

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Example Sentences

It was only when samples arrived at the biomedical research laboratory in the capital Kinshasa -- nearly 1,800 kilometres away as the crow flies -- that the Ebola outbreak was confirmed.

From Barron's • May 24, 2026

We had a house at the top of Mount Washington where, on a clear day, I could see the downtown skyscrapers surrounding my office—five minutes, as the crow flies.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025

Paradise is only about 13 miles southeast of Cohasset, as the crow flies.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 1, 2024

Just 300 miles away, as the crow flies, Myung-hui had arrived in South Korea.

From BBC • Apr. 6, 2023

Ten miles away as the crow flies, the radio beeped three times in the Crown Victoria of Utah State Trooper Bart Rindlisbacher.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel