# royal road

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. An easy or straightforward procedure for achieving a goal; a procedure that requires little effort.
2. A chord progression, IVᴹ⁷–V⁷–iii⁷–vi, common in Japanese pop music.

## Etymology
In reference to Euclid, who is said to have told a king that there was no royal road to geometry. In the musical sense, a calque of Japanese 王道進行, itself deriving from a calque of sense 1.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/royal-road