- way
- way n 1 Way, route, course, passage, pass, artery mean, in common, a track or path traversed in going from one place to another.Way is general and inclusive of any track or path; it can specifically signify a thoroughfare especially in combinations and in fixed phrases{
high way
}{live across the way
}{the city accepted the new street as a public way
}{long inclined ways, paved with cobblestones, leading down between great warehouses to the water's edge— Santayana
}or a direction or track that is, or can or should be, followed{lost his way
}{the short way to town
}{the only other village was one day's mule trip farther into the interior, but the way was so steep and slippery in places that we walked almost as much as we rode— Hitchcock
}{the water continues its way down the valley for 5 kilometers— Heiden
}The term also can be extended to what leads in a specified or implied non- spatial direction or toward a specified or implied end{cleared the way for a more purely rational interpretation of the world— Ashley Montagu
}{the way was now open for the final act— W. C. Ford
}Route signifies a way, often circuitous, followed with regularity by a person or animal or laid out to be followed (as by a tourist or army){a paper route
}{a milk truck following a morning delivery route
}{the dog team trails and canoe routes of trader, trapper and missionary in the bush country— Granberg
}{a much traveled main route from Boston to Albany
}Course may be interchangeable with route but more often implies a path followed by or as if by a stream, star, or other moving natural object impelled by or in a path determined by natural forces{the course of a river
}{a meteor's course
}{a ship's course
}{the course of the seasons
}or a predetermined or more or less compulsory way or route followed in human activities or enterprises{a course of study for an academic degree
}{a golf course
}{a racecourse
}Passage stresses a crossing over or a passing through, often designating the thing passed through, usually something narrow where transit might be restricted{a rough passage to America by boat
}{a narrow passage from kitchen to basement
}{restrict the passage into the stomach
}Pass usually designates a passage through or over something that presents an obstacle (as a mountain or river){a narrow pass over the Alps
}{a shallow ford constituted the only pass across the river
}Artery is applied to one of the great continuous traffic channels (as a central rail route, river, or highway)from which branch off smaller or shorter channels{the Congo river would remain the main traffic artery— Weigend
}{the main artery between Buffalo and Niagara Falls— Retailing Daily
}{the need for improvement of main arteries interconnecting cities and for express highways in cities— Britannica Bk. of the Yr.
}2 *method, mode, manner, fashion, system
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
