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autostrada

motorway

noun ow-toh-STRAH-dah Rare
Travel & Places Transportation

Origin: Compound of auto (car) + strada (road); coined in Italy in the 1920s as Italy built some of the world's first motorways.

Also means

highway

Usage Note

Autostrada is feminine (l'autostrada, pl le autostrade). Italian motorways are numbered with an A prefix: l'A1 is the main north-south motorway. Driving on the autostrada usually requires paying a pedaggio (toll). The word has been adopted into several other languages.

Examples

"Abbiamo percorso tutta l'autostrada senza fermarci."

Natural Translation

We drove the entire motorway without stopping.

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