alleyway
Americannoun
Usage
What is an alleyway? An alleyway is a narrow passage between buildings or other structures. Alleyway can also refer to a narrow path or passage behind a row of houses, such as one that allows access to garages and back yards. The word alley means the same thing. Example: We took a shortcut through the narrow alleyway between the shops.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of alleyway
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:
He was walking down an alleyway near the station when he had a near miss with an e-motorbike gang.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Just after midnight on 1 May 1984, civil servant Anthony Littler stepped off a train at East Finchley station and set off down a dark alleyway towards home.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
As he sprinted down an alleyway in April 2020, former Whittier Det.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025
The first-generation underground churches of a half-century ago met in houses and undisclosed alleyway rooms, gathering by word of mouth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
As they passed the shiny exterior of Mirror Tech, Coal slipped between a trio of government SUVs and went down an alleyway to a side door.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Yes, it overlooks a nest of alleyways, and no, management does not like people going up there, and no, I don’t know all my neighbors by name or even sight yet.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Residents have resorted to using orange cones to stop Waymos from driving through alleyways or onto the lots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
You can still find vestiges of that past in the cobbled alleyways lined with pastel townhouses once owned by sea captains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
They can only get there via a tour, navigating a maze of narrow alleyways as residents go about their daily lives while stopping to visit local artists or see a capoeira show.
From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026
It was very much like the main town: shabby little huts, repaired a dozen times, patched with scraps of plastic or corrugated iron, leaning crazily against each other over muddy alleyways.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
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.
