roadblock

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈroʊdˌblɑk/ UK /ˈrəʊdblɒk/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a barrier across a road; an obstacle to progress

Funding became the main roadblock to the project's launch.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a barrier across a road; an... barrier obstacle obstruction barricade impediment hindrance

Word family

Related forms road block

Etymology

A 20th-century compound of road (from Old English rād, 'a riding, journey') + block (from Old French bloc, of Germanic origin).

rād Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# roadblock

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈroʊdˌblɑk/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈrəʊdblɒk/

## Meanings
1. a barrier across a road; an obstacle to progress

## Examples
- Funding became the main roadblock to the project's launch.

## Synonyms
- barrier
- obstacle
- obstruction
- barricade
- impediment
- hindrance

## Related Forms
- road
- block

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: rād

## Etymology
A 20th-century compound of road (from Old English rād, 'a riding, journey') + block (from Old French bloc, of Germanic origin).

## AI Etymology
Roadblock is from a 20th-century compound of road (from Old English rād, 'a riding, journey') + block (from Old French bloc, of Germanic origin). The historical chain includes Old English rād. Older glosses in the chain include "a riding, journey", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, roadblock is best read as compound and borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a barrier across a road; an obstacle to progress". related forms include road and block. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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