Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A hostile invasion; a raid.
- n. An advance, especially at another's expense; an encroachment. Often used in the plural: Foreign products have made inroads into the American economy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A predatory or hostile incursion; a raid by public enemies; a temporary or desultory invasion.
- n. Forcible entrance; powerful or sudden influx or incursion; forcible or insidious encroachment.
- To make an inroad into; invade.
- To make an inroad; encroach; depredate.
Wiktionary
- n. an advance into enemy territory, an incursion, an attempted invasion
- n. usually plural progress made toward accomplishing a goal or solving a problem
- v. obsolete, transitive To make an inroad into; to invade.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The entrance of an enemy into a country with purposes of hostility; a sudden or desultory incursion or invasion; raid; encroachment.
- v. obsolete To make an inroad into; to invade.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an encroachment or intrusion
- n. an invasion or hostile attack
Etymologies
- in1 + road, riding, raid (obsolete). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Like the cyberpunks, these writers give us an 'inroad' for understanding and adapting to rapid change in technology.”
“They're visual trickery in fash form, a 12 quid inroad to cool.”
“As a result, a cap of £10,000 would make a massive inroad into the finances of the main parties.”
The Guardian: Party funding shakeup rejection leaves committee urging promises kept
“Achieving this objective will constitute a first inroad into the advertising system.”
“An announcement that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit the country next month signals a preliminary U.S. inroad into the poor, yet strategically important, country.”
“In the U.S., Toyota's recall of millions of vehicles has provided an inroad for rivals such as Hyundai Motor Co. and a revitalized Detroit Big Three.”
“Right now less than half the adult population has a bank account, creating an opening for banks that can use mobile technology to serve the vast number of "unbanked" consumers--as well as a potential inroad to the whole of Africa.”
“Buying Hsu Fu Chi would give Nestlé a new inroad to the booming market for candy in China, where demand for sweet treats has grown rapidly over the past decade as consumers' incomes have risen.”
The Wall Street Journal: Nestlé Offers $1.17 Billion for 60% Stake in Hsu Fu Chi
“In the U.S. agriculture industry, distillers dried grain has been seen as an important inroad to the Chinese food market.”
The Wall Street Journal: China Antidumping Probe Finds Less Than Expected
“This inroad of the Fire People on the carrot-patch was the beginning of the end, though we did not know it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inroad’.
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inroads
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL I
iconoclast, idiosyncrasy, ignoble, ignominious, illicit, illusory, illustrious, imbibe, imbue, immaculate, immaterial, immolate and 155 more...
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Yet more words
hootowling, hoot owl, midday, prohibitive, shutdown, gerund, tripe, doweling, detestable, good measure, boojum, undergirding and 167 more...
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05/06 NYT
plausible, justifiably, deputy, refrain, antipathy, hypocritical, crockery, surname, reel, erode, inroad, incidental and 1 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Historical Military Terms of Interest
Many (if not all) of these terms were selected from A pocket dictionary, for military officers, containing a definition of all the tactical terms now in use, with other matter belonging to the art ...
zig-zags, yeoman, xerxes, xeiff, xenophon, worm, watch-word, windage, wheeling, wad-hock, wadding, volley and 242 more...
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Words of February
various words discussed in class with students
boundary, foible, flaw, gimmick, tossup, susceptible, skeptical, devise, encircle, whistle, barnstorming, correlative and 18 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for inroad.
chained_bear A commonly used word (usually in the plural), but with military undertones/origins from the definition "hostile invasion." Oct 9, 2008