# lane

Pronunciation: say "LAYN" /leɪn/

## Noun

1. A lengthwise division of a roadway intended for a single line of vehicles, usually marked with lines.
   - Simple: A strip of road for one 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._
2. Any road, street, or similar route, in the word's use as part of a street name.
   - Simple: A road or street, when the word is part of its 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._
3. A narrow road or path, especially in the countryside, often with hedges, walls or trees on both sides.
   - Simple: A narrow road or path, especially in the country, often with hedges, walls, or trees along it.
   - _A tractor rumbled up the lane toward the farmhouse._
   - _Cyclists love the winding lanes between the farms outside town._
4. A marked strip of a running track or swimming pool that keeps each competitor separate during a race or training.
   - Simple: One of the marked strips on a running track or in a pool, where one person runs or swims.
   - _Sprinters drew lots to decide their lanes for the final._
   - _She held her form through the final bend and never drifted from her lane._
5. The long, narrow surface, traditionally of wood, in a bowling alley down which players roll the ball toward the pins.
   - Simple: The long, smooth strip of floor that you roll a bowling ball down.
   - _She studied the oil pattern on the lane before bowling her first frame._
   - _All sixteen lanes were booked for the league tournament._
6. Any one of a set of tracks or passageways laid out parallel to each other.
   - Simple: One of several paths or tracks that run side by side.
   - _Supermarket designers study how quickly each lane clears at peak hours._
   - _The sorting machine drops packages into separate lanes by zip code._
7. A designated course along which ships or aircraft travel.
   - Simple: A set path that ships or planes follow when they 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._
8. In multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, one of the main paths on the map along which player and computer-controlled characters travel and fight.
   - Simple: In some video games, one of the main paths on the map where players fight.
   - _She farmed minions in the bottom lane for the first ten minutes._
   - _Their jungler kept rotating between lanes to set up ambushes._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In horse racing, the home stretch: the final straight section of the track before the finish line.
- (noun) Any of the parallel slots in which values can be stored in a SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) computer architecture.
- (noun) In certain card games, an empty space in the tableau created by removing an entire row of cards.

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/lane (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).