highway
/ˈhaɪweɪ/noun, verb
highway is spelled H-I-G-H-W-A-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is higway: about 130 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 70 of all searches for the word. Highway is a noun meaning “A main public road, especially a multi-lane, high-speed thoroughfare”. The plural of highway is highways.
How many letters and syllables are in highway?
| Letters | 7: H-I-G-H-W-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 31 times per million words; the 3,052nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, higway, about 130 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell highway?
Highway is spelled H-I-G-H-W-A-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 70 of the searches for highway in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is highway?
Highway appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce highway?
- /ˈhaɪweɪ/
- British /ˈhɑjwɛj/
Highway has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-highway.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with highway
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: hi-way.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of highway
- highways plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hwy.
- hwy
- hi'way
- hi-way
- hiway
- hi way
- highwaying participle, present
- highwayed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does highway mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A main public road, especially a multi-lane, high-speed thoroughfare.
- 2
Any public road.
- 3
A way; a path that leads to a certain destiny.
You're on a highway to greatness.
- 4
archaicA road that is major (more heavily traveled and thus more important than a byway), higher than the surrounding land, has drainage ditches at the sides, or has any combination of those traits.
- 5
Synonym of bus (“common connection for two or more circuits or components”).
verb
- 1
To travel on a highway
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate highway?
Wiktionary records 4 abbreviations of highway: Hwy., hgwy, hwy, hwy..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Highway in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense main public road:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | grand chemin, grand’route, chaussée, autoroute |
| German | Hauptstraße, Chaussee, Autobahn |
| Portuguese | rodovia, autoestrada |
| Spanish | autopista, multitrocha, autovía |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does highway come from?
From Middle English heiȝwai, heiȝwei, from Old English hēahweġ (“main road, highway”), corresponding to high + way. Compare highgate, high street, high road.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).