railway

From rail +‎ way.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹeɪlˌweɪ/
• dialectal IPA^(key): /ˈɹælˌweɪ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -eɪlweɪ

railway (plural railways)

1. (chiefly UK, Ireland and Commonwealth) A transport system using rails used to move passengers or goods.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

2. (chiefly UK, Ireland, Philippines and Commonwealth) A track, consisting of parallel rails, over which wheeled vehicles such as trains may travel.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 14–15:

     His interest in railways is not the quality that marks Pearson out. Everyone was interested in railways. Over a thousand miles of them opened between 1837 and 1845, most of what would become the national network. [...] You needed an Act of Parliament to build a railway; but that wasn't very hard to obtain if you could give the appearance of adequately funded competence.

• (track): railroad track, railway track, railway line, rails
• (system): (US) railroad, rail
• rwy, RY, Ry., ry (abbreviations)

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ.lwɛ/ ~ /ʁe.lwɛ/

railway m (plural railways)

1. (Anglicism) railway

   Synonym: chemin de fer

• “railway”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.