What does "byway" mean?

A road or track not following a main route; a secondary or minor road or path.

What is a synonym for "byway"?

Common synonyms include: alley, alleyway, arterial, arterial highway, arterial street, artery.

//ˈbaɪweɪ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
A road or track not following a main route; a secondary or minor road or path.
"Near-synonyms: back road, back street, back lane"
2
a side road little traveled (as in the countryside) wordnet
3
A road that is not frequently travelled.
4
a little-known or arcane field of study or detail. broadly
"Though his account of written communication over the past 5,000 years necessarily has a powerful forward momentum, his diversions down the fascinating byways of the subject are irresistible ..."

"Near-synonyms: back road, back street, back lane"

From Middle English bywey, equivalent to by- + way.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.