avenue
Americannoun
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avenues
plural
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a wide street or main thoroughfare.
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a means of access or attainment.
avenues of escape; avenues to greater power.
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a way or means of entering into or approaching a place.
the various avenues to India.
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Chiefly British.
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a wide, usually tree-lined road, path, driveway, etc., through grounds to a country house or monumental building.
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a suburban, usually tree-lined residential street.
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noun
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a broad street, often lined with trees
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(capital as part of a street name) a road, esp in a built-up area
Shaftesbury Avenue
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a main approach road, as to a country house
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a way bordered by two rows of trees
an avenue of oaks
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a line of approach
explore every avenue
Synonym Usage
See street.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of avenue
First recorded in 1590–1600; from French, literally, “approach,” noun use of feminine past participle of avenir, from Latin advenīre “to come to.” See a- 5, venue
Explanation
An avenue is a street, especially a wide one lined with trees. An avenue is also any approach to doing something. For example, this web site might be a new avenue you have found for learning words. The word avenue comes from the French avenir, meaning "to come to, or arrive." The first meaning is simply a wide street. An avenue — or boulevard — is likely to be busy, unlike a quiet side street. The abbreviation is ave., as in Park Ave. Also, an avenue is a way to accomplish something. If you need money but can't get a loan, you'll have to find another avenue.
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:
Her brother says they have tried "every possible avenue... but so far we haven't been able to get anywhere on this".
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
Your ex-husband’s text, whether genuine or an attempt to taunt you, may have left open a legal avenue.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
"Instead, it's pointing us towards platelet biology and gives us a new avenue to investigate."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
Paris police chief Patrice Faure banned demonstrations around the Elysee presidential palace, the prime minister's office, and the Champs-Elysees shopping avenue, among other key locations.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Along the avenue, our drummer beat out commands, but we could not hear them sufficiently amidst the chaos.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
"These gravitational wave signatures open up new avenues for us to unravel the evolution of the early universe after the Big Bang."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
Common suggestions include eliminating the income-tax cap, raising the full retirement age, implementing new taxation avenues or altering the cost-of-living adjustment in an effort to boost revenue for the program.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
Each situation is somewhat unique, but if there is an overarching theme in entertainment, it is that the traditional avenues of growth in streaming—subscriptions and advertising—are becoming more challenging.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Since its founding in 1916, the 1-square-mile town has used directional descriptors — City Hall is on the east side of Monte Verde Street between Ocean and 7th avenues — instead of building numbers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
The streets were crazy down there; they didn’t have any kind of streets and avenues; they just had names and they looked like a game of Pick-Up Sticks.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
