freeway
Americannoun
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freeways
plural
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an express highway with no intersections, usually having traffic routed on and off by means of a cloverleaf.
-
a toll-free highway.
noun
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another name for expressway
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a major road that can be used without paying a toll
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of freeway
Compare meaning
How does freeway compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A freeway is a busy, divided road with several lanes heading in both directions. The freeway is often to quickest way to get where you're going, unless there's a traffic jam or an accident slowing things down. People often use the terms freeway and highway interchangeably, and there's also parkway and expressway — or motorway, if you're in the UK. Traffic moves fast on the freeway, and its access is limited to exits that lead to and from smaller local roads and streets. There are no traffic signals on the freeway, but a crash or road work can sometimes bring traffic to a complete stop.
Vocabulary lists containing freeway
The Distance Between Us
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Land of the Cranes
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We Were Here
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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:
The 101 has long been a bottleneck nightmare as it approaches Santa Barbara and the yearslong project to widen the freeway has only made it worse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The round house is one of seven residences on a 2.25-acre site next to the freeway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
The two-lane carriageway in the sky was one of the first sections of the M4 and a relic of the 1960s freeway building boom after the explosion in postwar car ownership.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Just after 1 a.m., the entire northbound 405 freeway was shut down as firefighters, paramedics and CHP officers responded to the scene.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Fadi gazed out the window at the tall walls that lined either side of the freeway, sheltering buildings, shopping plazas, and parks on the other side.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
He enjoyed driving and over the years, graduated to luxurious vehicles from the $1,000 Ford Falcon in which he first took to the freeways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
As a place that came of age with the automobile, Los Angeles is a sprawl of freeways with a public transport system that would embarrass any medium-sized European city.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
Meanwhile, the firm has temporarily pulled its service on freeways in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami, and said it was evaluating its cars' performance in construction zones.
From BBC ● May 22, 2026
Waymo said that it’s pausing its robotaxi services on freeways in the U.S. as it updates its software to improve performance around construction zones and flooded roads.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
Today I could not find my way around its newly built freeways, its thriving industrial complexes, its racially mixed, upscale suburban sprawl.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
Definitions 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.
