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

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.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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

The youth movement is calling on the government to adhere to the climate targets enshrined in the Paris Agreement, arguing that massive investments in new autobahn projects should be stopped and redirected to low-emission alternatives.

Read more on Reuters

Germany — a country with a powerful car lobby, where people embrace autobahns without speed limits — spent $74 per capita on railways in 2019, compared with about $400 in Switzerland, which leads statistics in train performance.

Read more on Washington Post