SUBWAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subway mean? 

• SUBWAY (noun)
  The noun SUBWAY has 2 senses:

1. an electric railway operating below the surface of the ground (usually in a city)

2. an underground tunnel or passage enabling pedestrians to cross a road or railway

  Familiarity information: SUBWAY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBWAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An electric railway operating below the surface of the ground (usually in a city)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

metro; subway; subway system; tube; underground

Context example:

in Paris the subway system is called the 'metro' and in London it is called the 'tube' or the 'underground'

Hypernyms ("subway" is a kind of...):

railroad; railroad line; railway; railway line; railway system (line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a system of transportation for trains that pull passengers or freight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An underground tunnel or passage enabling pedestrians to cross a road or railway

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

subway; underpass

Hypernyms ("subway" is a kind of...):

tunnel (a passageway through or under something, usually underground (especially one for trains or cars))

 Context examples 

According to state media, Xinhua, it costs $102 million to build a kilometer of subway and only $2 million for the ART.

(Driverless Bus-train Hybrid Runs on Virtual Painted Tracks, VOA)

This makes it ideal for cities that have growing demand for public transit, but not enough money to build subways.

(Driverless Bus-train Hybrid Runs on Virtual Painted Tracks, VOA)

I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Of theatrical people there were Gus Waize and Horace O'Donavan and Lester Meyer and George Duckweed and Francis Bull. Also from New York were the Chromes and the Backhyssons and the Dennickers and Russel Betty and the Corrigans and the Kellehers and the Dewars and the Scullys and S. W. Belcher and the Smirkes and the young Quinns, divorced now, and Henry L. Palmetto who killed himself by jumping in front of a subway train in Times Square.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)