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royal road

American  
Or Royal Road

noun

  1. an auspicious or easy way or means to achieve something.

    the royal road to success.

  2. a highway in ancient Persia, 1,677 miles (2,700 km) long, extending from Susa in W Iran to W Asia Minor.

royal road British  

noun

  1. an easy or direct way of achieving a desired end

    the royal road to success
"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

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.

There is no royal road to the Slate News Quiz.

From Slate • Oct. 17, 2025

You cannot gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, and there is no royal road to any kind of success or happiness.

From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2021

Take a royal road trip in the Loire Valley, dotted with Renaissance chateaus.

From Washington Post • Feb. 13, 2020

To deal with the situation, not only did he encourage intermarriage, but he simply took over the Persian system of governance, with its royal road, its regional governors, and its huge and elaborate bureaucracy.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2019

So the road from Ecbatana must have joined the great royal road at Physcus, and then it ran past Sittace to Babylon.

From The History of Antiquity Vol. VI. (vol. VI. of VI.) by Duncker, Max

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.