lane
Plurallanes
- 1A lengthwise division of a roadway intended for a single line of vehicles, usually marked with lines.
A delivery van was blocking the right lane during rush hour.
The highway widens to four lanes just past the interchange.
UsageA vehicle is in a lane (in the left lane); drivers change lanes or merge into another lane.
Note
Here the lane is a strip of a road rather than a road itself, unlike the street-name sense. Lanes are named by position or by job: the left, middle, or right lane; the passing lane, where drivers overtake; the exit lane.
- 2Any road, street, or similar route, in the word's use as part of a street name.
The new clinic is at 40 Oak Lane, across from the high school.
Despite its quiet-sounding name, Cedar Lane is a wide, busy street through the shopping district.
UsageIn addresses it is capitalized and comes after the name: on Oak Lane, at 40 Oak Lane.
Similarstreet
Note
Once it is part of a name, it promises nothing about width or setting, so a Lane on the map may be as busy as any street. Ordinary usage keeps the narrow, quiet picture for the narrow country road.
- 3A narrow road or path, especially in the countryside, often with hedges, walls or trees on both sides.
A tractor rumbled up the lane toward the farmhouse.
Cyclists love the winding lanes between the farms outside town.
UsageOften a country lane or a narrow lane; people go up or down the lane.
Similarroad
- 4A marked strip of a running track or swimming pool that keeps each competitor separate during a race or training.
Sprinters drew lots to decide their lanes for the final.
She held her form through the final bend and never drifted from her lane.
UsageAthletes are in lane four (no article before the number) or in the inside or outside lane.
Note
Like the road's traffic lane, a lane on a running track is a lengthwise strip that keeps one runner apart from the rest of the field. In sprints each athlete stays in an assigned lane rather than jostling for position, and a standard outdoor track usually has eight of them.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Track lanes separate runners. en.wiktionary.org
- This applies to sprint races, not all track races; longer races allow runners to compete together. sport.education.nsw.gov.au
- A standard outdoor track can have eight, six or occasionally four lanes. cits.wa.gov.au
- 5The long, narrow surface, traditionally of wood, in a bowling alley down which players roll the ball toward the pins.
She studied the oil pattern on the lane before bowling her first frame.
All sixteen lanes were booked for the league tournament.
UsagePeople book lanes at a bowling alley: the lane is the strip, and the alley is usually the whole building.
Similaralley
- 6Any one of a set of tracks or passageways laid out parallel to each other.
Supermarket designers study how quickly each lane clears at peak hours.
The sorting machine drops packages into separate lanes by zip code.
UsageOften in compounds: checkout lane, security lane.
Similartrack
- 7A designated course along which ships or aircraft travel.
Cargo vessels keep to a marked lane as they pass through the strait.
Transatlantic flights follow established lanes that keep safe distances between aircraft.
UsageMost often in shipping lane or sea lane, written as two words.
Similarroute, corridor, course, channel
Note
Like the road lane, it is a set course that keeps traffic in order, here for vessels at sea and, in the same sense, for aircraft in the sky.
Less common meanings
- 8In multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, one of the main paths on the map along which player and computer-controlled characters travel and fight.
She farmed minions in the bottom lane for the first ten minutes.
Their jungler kept rotating between lanes to set up ambushes.
- 9In horse racing, the home stretch: the final straight section of the track before the finish line.
- 10Any of the parallel slots in which values can be stored in a SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) computer architecture.
- 11In certain card games, an empty space in the tableau created by removing an entire row of cards.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of lane apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Proto-Germanic *lanō ("lane, passageway") became Proto-West Germanic *lanu and then Old English lanu ("a lane, alley, avenue"), which Middle English carried on as lane or lone. Relatives include Dutch laan, German Low German Lane, and Swedish lån.