What does "viaduct" mean?

A bridge with several spans that carries rail or road traffic over a valley or other obstacles.

Viaduct

Common synonyms include: bascule bridge, bateau bridge, bifrost, bridge, cantilever bridge, carrefour.

//ˈvaɪədʌkt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A bridge with several spans that carries rail or road traffic over a valley or other obstacles.
"[…] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit."
2
bridge consisting of a series of arches supported by piers used to carry a road (or railroad) over a valley wordnet

"They're building a new viaduct there."

A blend of Latin via (“highway; road”) + English (aque)duct.

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