viaduct
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of viaduct
1810–20; < Latin via way + (aque)duct
Explanation
A viaduct is a bridge made of connected sections. Most viaducts are a series of arches that span a road. Some viaducts stretch across train tracks, while other carry traffic across valleys, gorges, or bodies of water. What's distinctive about older viaducts is that they're usually made of equal-sized arches all linked into one long bridge. Newer viaducts can look simply like an elevated road or highway. The word viaduct combines the Latin via, or "road," with ducere, "to lead something."
Vocabulary lists containing viaduct
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Around the World in Eighty Days
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Wise Blood
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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.
The location, framed by the picturesque Sixth Street Viaduct, was chosen with scale and style in mind.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2025
A long-planned $1.4-billion real estate development at the foot of the newly famous Sixth Street Viaduct in downtown Los Angeles is closer to getting underway after receiving approval from the city Planning Commission.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2024
Scotland's Glenfinnan Viaduct is best known for appearing in Harry Potter.
From BBC • Oct. 27, 2024
Chairman Peter Whiers said thenew wall was "an important next step in both protecting the heritage of Twemlow Viaduct and continuing to raise the profile of Holmes Chapel on the tourist map for Cheshire".
From BBC • Aug. 29, 2024
Lucy came with me, and we went early to our old seat, whilst the cortège of boats went up the river to the Viaduct and came down again.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
