Dictionary

thoroughfare en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈθəɹ.ə.fɛɹ/ US, hurry–furry merger
• /ˈθʌɹəfɛː/ (UK)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English thurghfare, corresponding to thorough- (“through”) + fare. Compare Old English þurhfaran (“to go through, go over, traverse, pierce, pass through, pass beyond, transcend, penetrate”). Compare also Old English þurhfær (“inner secret place”), German Durchfahrt (“passage through, thoroughfare”).

Meanings

1. (countable, qualifier:now rare except in certain set phrases, uncountable) A passage; a way through.
   • In the scullery Smiley had once more checked his thoroughfare, shoved some deck-chairs aside, and pinned a string to the mangle to guide him because he saw badly in the dark. 1974, John Le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:
   • “I ask you,” cried Lloyd George in 1909. “Are we to have all the ways of reform, financial and social, blocked simply by a notice board: ‘No thoroughfare. By order of Nathanial Rothschild’?” 1961, Frederic Morton, The Rothschilds, page 173:
2. (countable, uncountable) A road open at both ends or connecting one area with another; a highway or main street.
   • Mr. Roscoe, on the contrary, has claimed none of the accorded privileges of talent. He has shut himself up in no garden of thought, no elysium of fancy; but has gone forth into the highways and thoroughfares of life; […]. 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Roscoe:
   • a dozen houses were quickly blazing, including those of Sir John Fielding and two other justices, and four in Holborn – one of the greatest thoroughfares in London – which were all burning at the same time, and burned until they went out of themselves, for the people cut the engine hose, and would not suffer the firemen to play upon the flames. 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge:
   • Local art is now a viable industry, and hundreds of islanders make a living in it. The thoroughfare of Oneroa village is lined with shops and galleries full of their work. 2011 July 1, Stephen Phelan, The Guardian:
   • With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
   • East [Street] and West Street form a single thoroughfare running as a backbone through the village, flanked by neat, painted cottages of predominantly 18th-century brick. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 220, about Hambledon, Hants:
   • But the town handed Trump a rare defeat last week when town commissioners voted unanimously not to rename the island’s main thoroughfare from Gulf of Mexico Drive to Gulf of America Drive. 2025 October 27, Joshua Benton, “Nine months later, that body of water down south is still the “Gulf of Mexico” to news outlets”, in NiemanLab, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2025:
3. (uncountable) The act of going through; passage; travel, transit.
   • The sign leading to the other carriage reads: No thoroughfare.
   • and made one realm, / Hell and this world, one realm, one continent / Of easy thorough-fare. 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 391-393:
4. (countable, uncountable) An unobstructed waterway allowing passage for ships.

Forms

Translations (78)

nl waterweg (waterway) · de Verkehrsader (road open at both ends) · fr voie navigable (waterway) · ru кана́л (waterway) · nl doorgangsweg (road open at both ends) · ru гла́вная доро́га (road open at both ends) · pl przejście (way through) · pl droga wodna (waterway) · ja 大通り (road open at both ends) · nl verkeersader (road open at both ends) · el λεωφόρος (road open at both ends) · fi vesitie (waterway) · de Durchgangsstraße (way through) · ja 通路 (way through) · fr artère (road open at both ends) · ja 通り抜け (way through) · el πορθμός (waterway) · vi lối đi (way through) · hy բանուկ փողոց (road open at both ends) · hy անցում (way through) · nl doorgang (way through) · pl droga przelotowa (road open at both ends) · ru автомагистра́ль (road open at both ends) · ru во́дная магистра́ль (waterway) · es vía de comunicación f gran rúa (road open at both ends) · cmn 主路 (road open at both ends) · ru прохо́д (way through) · cmn 通道 (way through) · vi đường thuỷ (waterway) · ka სატრანსპორტო მაგისტრალი (road open at both ends) · nl vaarweg (waterway) · es pasaje (way through) · ru во́дный путь (waterway) · ru прое́зд (way through) · hy լայն փողոց (road open at both ends) · ka ფართო ქუჩა (road open at both ends) · fr passage (way through) · vi đường phố lớn (road open at both ends) · pt hidrovia (waterway) · fr grand-rue (road open at both ends) · fi läpikulkutie (way through) · ru оживлённая у́лица (road open at both ends) · bg про́ход (way through) · ka ცოცხალი ქუჩა (road open at both ends) · el δίοδος (way through) · de Durchgangsstraße (road open at both ends) · bg пъ́тна арте́рия (road open at both ends) · cmn 航道 (waterway) · es canal (waterway) · ru автостра́да (road open at both ends) · cmn 康衢 (road open at both ends) · nl doorgaande weg (road open at both ends) · cmn 要道 (road open at both ends) · pt passagem (way through) · es vía pública (road open at both ends) · fr voie principale (road open at both ends) · ru оживлённая доро́га (road open at both ends) · ka გასავალი (way through) · pt via pública (road open at both ends) · hy ջրային ուղի (waterway) · fi päätie (road open at both ends) · grc διέξοδος (road open at both ends) · de Durchfahrt (way through) · de Hauptverkehrsstraße (road open at both ends) · vi đường lớn (road open at both ends) · nl vaarwater (waterway) · de Wasserstrasse (waterway) · fi pääkatu (road open at both ends) · fi kulkureitti (way through) · ar شَارِع رَئِيسِيّ (road open at both ends) · ka განიერი ქუჩა (road open at both ends) · ka გასასვლელი (way through) · cmn 大道 (road open at both ends) · is aðalbraut (way through) · cmn 水道 (waterway) · nl passage (way through) · ja 目抜き通り (road open at both ends) · ru магистра́ль (road open at both ends)