subway
Americannoun
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especially British, tube, underground. an underground electric railroad, usually in a large city.
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Chiefly British. a short tunnel or underground passageway for pedestrians, automobiles, etc.; underpass.
verb (used without object)
noun
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an underground passage or tunnel enabling pedestrians to cross a road, railway, etc
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an underground passage or tunnel for traffic, electric power supplies, etc
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an underground railway
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of subway
Explanation
An underground transportation system on rails is called a subway. New York City's subway system has more stations than any other subway in the world. In most large cities, the subway is a good way to get where you need to go. Subways have many different local names, from the BART in San Francisco to the Métro in Paris to the U-Bahn in Berlin. Before subway came to mean "underground railway," it meant "underground passage for water pipes." And if you ask where the subway is in London, you'll be directed to an underground walkway, which is what subway means in the U.K.
Vocabulary lists containing subway
October Words
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Unit 5
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Transportation
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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:
Truelove told her he preferred living in a subway tunnel to being on the street, because people didn’t bother him down there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
"I get on the subway with my big bag and go home with my cheap groceries. I mean, I'm so happy. This is amazing," Porter said.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
The most coveted job in New York City might not be on Wall Street or Broadway, but underground, cleaning the subway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
A subway car is supposed to be one of society’s great equalizers.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
With heavy hearts, Nigro and Bobby rode the subway home to Brooklyn.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Philadelphia’s World Cup host organization said Monday that it will offer free public transit to fans who are traveling home from Lincoln Financial Field via the state’s Septa system, which operates buses, subways and trains.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 21, 2026
“When I am mayor, I will work every day to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe—on our streets, our subways, at shul, in every moment of every day,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025
Admittedly, the underlying facts are quite different: After a brief pandemic spike, crime rates in New York have returned to near-historic lows, and violence in the subways is exceptionally rare.
From Salon ● May 25, 2025
Money raised from the tolls would help bolster funds for its aging subways, which have garnered headlines over the years for massive underground floods during heavy rains.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2025
And so, on our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I taught Calista everything there was to know about New York—the streets and the avenues, express subways, bus stops.
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
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.
