avenue
[av-uh-nyoo, -noo]
- a wide street or main thoroughfare.
- a means of access or attainment: avenues of escape; avenues to greater power.
- a way or means of entering into or approaching a place: the various avenues to India.
- Chiefly British.
- a wide, usually tree-lined road, path, driveway, etc., through grounds to a country house or monumental building.
- a suburban, usually tree-lined residential street.
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Origin of avenue
Synonyms
See more synonyms for avenue on Thesaurus.com1. See street.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for avenue
Contemporary Examples
And the bells chimed for victory at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.
The marchers began to stream out of the park, where they walked West on 110th and then hung a right on 7th Avenue.
Metamorphosis is running at Lincoln Center, 63rd Street and 9th Avenue, until January 11, 2015.
I witnessed that tragedy a few blocks from where it occurred, standing motionless at 8th Street and 6th Avenue in lower Manhattan.
James Ferguson, 29, a design student and paralegal, who lives on 89th and 1st Avenue, is among them.
Historical Examples
I cannot decide which way to turn to reach Fifth Avenue again.
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
Quite suddenly Sidney knew who the girl at 213 —— Avenue was.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Three months before, the Avenue would have meant nothing to Sidney.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
On her first night on duty, a girl had been brought in from the Avenue.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Ask your future husband if he knows a girl at 213 —— Avenue.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
avenue
- a broad street, often lined with trees
- (capital as part of a street name)a road, esp in a built-up areaShaftesbury Avenue
- a main approach road, as to a country house
- a way bordered by two rows of treesan avenue of oaks
- a line of approachexplore every avenue
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Word Origin
C17: from French, from avenir to come to, from Latin advenīre, from venīre to come
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for avenue
n.
c.1600, "a way of approach" (originally a military word), from Middle French avenue "way of access," from Old French avenue "act of approaching, arrival," noun use of fem. of avenu, past participle of avenir "to come to, arrive," from Latin advenire "to come to," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + venire "to come" (see venue). Meaning shifted to "a way of approach to a country-house," usually bordered by trees, hence, "a broad, tree-lined roadway" (1650s), then to "wide, main street" (by 1846, especially in U.S.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper