motorway
part of speech
noun (a motorway, motorways)
meaning for a pupil
A motorway is a wide, fast road with several lanes in each direction, made for long journeys by car and lorry. (UK, Ireland, NZ; US: freeway or highway; Australia: freeway or motorway.) tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life families drive on motorways for long trips and stop at service stations. In safety lessons, people must never walk, cycle or play on a motorway; if a car breaks down, passengers get out on the side away from traffic and wait behind the barrier. In maths, motorway speed limits (70 mph in the UK) give problems about speed, distance and time. Phrases: «on the motorway», «motorway services», «motorway junction», «hard shoulder».
examples
- We drove down the motorway to the seaside. tree →
- Let's stop at the motorway services for a break. tree →
- Bikes are not allowed on the motorway. tree →
- The motorway was jammed with traffic. tree →
- Take the next junction off the motorway. tree →
- At 60 miles per hour, it takes two hours to drive 120 miles on the motorway. tree →
- When the car broke down, we waited behind the barrier. tree →
- The motorway has three lanes each way. tree →
note
Countable, one word: motor + way. Different names: UK/Ireland/NZ «motorway», US «freeway» or «interstate», Canada «highway», Australia «freeway» or «motorway». Maths: distance = speed × time, so 70 mph for 2 hours = 140 miles.
In the corpora
- On a motorway, after a breakdown everyone gets out and waits behind the barrier, away from the traffic.
- Mei's friend says the Silk Road was one long road like a motorway.
- Picture the family car with a flat tyre on the motorway at night, in the rain, and Dad saying «Well.
- A famous photo of a shark swimming on a flooded motorway is an edited fake that gets shared again after many big storms.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «motorway» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.