noun
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US and Canadian word: sidewalk. a hard-surfaced path for pedestrians alongside and a little higher than a road
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a paved surface, esp one that is a thoroughfare
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the material used in paving
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civil engineering the hard layered structure that forms a road carriageway, airfield runway, vehicle park, or other paved areas
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geology a level area of exposed rock resembling a paved road See limestone pavement
Other Word Forms
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“In fact,” he said when he first emailed me about his predicament, “my friends and I sometimes used the ramping pavement as jumps for our bicycles.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2026
Another clip, filmed from a car driving north along Golders Green Road, shows the suspect chasing after a man on the pavement.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
It was all quiet and business as usual, except for the roaring trucks that were spraying foamy "detergent" on the pavement.
From Barron's • Apr. 25, 2026
Parliament-Funkadelic is playing a live show onstage while we stomp the pavement in faithful entrancement.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2026
It’s a mirage, Khalid told me once—like the mirages you see way out in the middle of a desert, but instead, they shimmer over the cracked pavement and potholes of our little town.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
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.
