autobahn

[aw-tuh-bahn, ou-taw-bahn]

noun

plural

autobahns ,

plural

autobahnen .

1. (in Germany and Austria) a superhighway; expressway.

autobahn

/ ˈɔːtəˌbɑːn /

noun

1. a motorway in German-speaking countries

Word History and Origins

Origin of autobahn¹

1935–40; < German, equivalent to Auto auto + Bahn road, way

Word History and Origins

Origin of autobahn¹

from German, from Auto car + Bahn road

Example Sentences

Unlike elsewhere on the autobahn, the median strip on this 3.5-mile section isn’t grassy but solid tarmac.

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Todt’s success with the autobahn earned him promotion to lead all of Hitler’s construction programs, and in 1940 he was named the Reich’s armaments minister.

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Today, dropped into phone calls, Zoom squares and social-media feeds, our brains feel, as Mr. Rein puts it, “out of place, an archaic tool,” like “a horse-drawn carriage on the autobahn.”

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Hitler, as the cliché goes, built the autobahns, and Nazi Germany developed technologies like synthetic fuels, optical equipment and space flight that were ahead of the Western democracies.

Read more on Salon

Volkswagen shut down assembly lines churning out its popular Golf hatchbacks and converted the factory, which has its own exit on the autobahn, to make six electric models.

Read more on New York Times