Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

cable car

American  
Or cable-car

noun

  • cable cars
    plural
  1. a vehicle, usually enclosed, used on a cable railway or tramway.


cable car British  

noun

  1. a cabin suspended from and moved by an overhead cable in a mountain area

  2. a cableway

  3. a passenger car on a cable railway

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of cable car

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75


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:

Imagine a stopped cable car sitting at the top of a steep hill in San Francisco.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026

The Castello d’Albertis-Montegalletto line is called an elevator, or “ascensore,” but its small cabins are a combination of funicular, cable car and outdoor elevator that travel a vertical distance of around 250 feet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Director Mohammed Ali Naqvi's pacey documentary tells the real life story of the rescue of Pakistani schoolboys stranded hundreds of feet above a Himalayan valley in a rusting cable car when wires snap.

From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026

Local media reported the metro and cable car in the capital, Santo Domingo, had stopped working and people had to be evacuated during the national blackout on Tuesday.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2025

They sat on the wooden benches that ran along the outside of the cable car, facing the sidewalk.

From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training