Learn English – “road” vs. “pavement” vs. “roadway” for French “chaussée” [road surface] in AmEng vernacular

american-englishformalityusagevernacular

What's the difference between those terms? Can they be used just about interchangeably?

road: a long, narrow stretch with a leveled or paved surface, made for traveling by motor vehicle, carriage, etc.; street or highway. Random House Kennerman Webster's College Dictionary

pavement: n. (Chiefly AmEng) A hard smooth surface, especially of a public area or thoroughfare, that will bear travel. American Heritage® Dictionary

roadway: n. A road, especially the part over which vehicles travel.
American Heritage® Dictionary

chaussée: nf (voie de circulation) road n; (US) pavement n; roadway n

Il y a des nids de poule sur la chaussée, fais attention !
There are potholes on the road [surface], be careful! WordReference

Best Answer

They are not quite the same.

Road refers almost exclusively to something use for the travel of motor vehicles as the definition you quote says.

Pavement is a hard surface, almost always for travel of some kind, but sometimes other things.

For most kinds of road the terms could be used interchangeably, but there are exceptions. Let me give examples to illustrate the difference.

  • A dirt road without a hard surface is a road, but not pavement.
  • A hard surface used for some other purpose, even one related to travel, would be pavement but might not be a road. For example, the hard surface of a parking lot might be pavement, but not road.
  • If a road has an unpaved shoulder or median, you might refer to the whole thing as a road, but only the main paved part as pavement.

Roadway is not common, but I would use it to refer to the parts of a road on which travel actually occurs - so excluding medians or shoulders that might be considered part of a road.

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