pavement

American  

[peyv-muhnt] / ˈpeɪv mənt /

noun

1. a paved road, highway, etc.

2. a paved surface, ground covering, or floor.

3. a material used for paving. pave.

4. Atlantic States and British. sidewalk.

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idioms

1. pound the pavement, to walk the streets in order to accomplish something.

   If you're going to find work you'd better start pounding the pavement.

pavement British  

/ ˈpeɪvmənt /

noun

1. US and Canadian word: sidewalk.  a hard-surfaced path for pedestrians alongside and a little higher than a road

2. a paved surface, esp one that is a thoroughfare

3. the material used in paving

4. civil engineering the hard layered structure that forms a road carriageway, airfield runway, vehicle park, or other paved areas

5. geology a level area of exposed rock resembling a paved road See limestone pavement

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pavement More Idioms  

1. see pound the pavement.

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Other Word Forms

• pavemental adjective
• prepavement noun
• subpavement noun

Etymology

Origin of pavement

1250–1300; Middle English < Old French < Latin pavīmentum. See pave, -ment

Explanation

Pavement is a hard surface that's covered in concrete or asphalt, like a road or a driveway. If you wipe out on your bike and land on the pavement, you may end up with skinned knees or scraped elbows. When pavement is newly surfaced or patched, it's smooth and even — but after a long, cold winter pavement is often full of potholes and cracks. In the US, pavement most often refers to a road or street, but it can also mean any paved surface, like a sidewalk or paved area in a park. The word has a Latin root, pavimentum, "level surface that's been beaten firm."

Example Sentences

North of the pavement, the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness holds a quieter terrain, where sunflower, ephedra and honey mesquite anchor the sand in subtle defiance of the wind.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

At nearly 650,000 acres — just smaller than Yosemite — the park unfolds as a vast mosaic of mountains, badlands and open desert valleys extending far beyond the reach of the pavement.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

Footage showed security officers lying on the pavement outside another stadium, according to videos verified by Storyful, a social-media intelligence firm owned by News Corp, the parent company of the Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

The jury heard that at about 05.30 BST on 17 July that year, a man walking his dog found an extremely distressed woman staggering along the pavement.

From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026

In this baked, desolate, treeless landscape, scattered with small tin-roofed huts and dusty walking paths, we drove through a gate and onto smooth pavement.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Related Words

• asphalt
• road
• sidewalk