memory lane

Syllables: me·mo·ry laneUK/ˈmɛm(ə)ɹi ˌleɪn/

memory lane noun: an imaginary path along which one can take a nostalgic or sentimental journey through one's memories of the past.

Noun

memory lane (plural memory lanes)

(idiomatic) An imaginary path along which one can take a nostalgic or sentimental journey through one's memories of the past.
- The speaker took us on a trip down memory lane with his recollections of village life fifty years ago.
- This is Memory Lane—lonely and drear to some, pleasant and gay to others. ... It was New Year's day in the old town, the most hallowed of holidays on Memory Lane; the day when the wharf was deserted, for everyone, great and small, walked over the Lane, many even to the very end.1894 December, B[urton] M. Balch, “Memory Lane. A New Year’s Study.”, in Burton M. Balch, editor, Hamilton Literary Monthly, volume 29, number 3, Clinton, N.Y.: Published by the students, Hamilton...

Memory Lane

Alternative letter-case form of memory lane.
- This is Memory Lane—lonely and drear to some, pleasant and gay to others. ... It was New Year's day in the old town, the most hallowed of holidays on Memory Lane; the day when the wharf was deserted, for everyone, great and small, walked over the Lane, many even to the very end.1894 December, B[urton] M. Balch, “Memory Lane. A New Year’s Study.”, in Burton M. Balch, editor, Hamilton Literary Monthly, volume 29, number 3, Clinton, N.Y.: Published by the students, Hamilton...
- “How about a stroll down Memory Lane. Remember this?” He thrust a picture at me.1954 May, Peter De Vries, chapter 3, in The Tunnel of Love, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published July 1954, →OCLC, page 25

My “memory lane” is splotched with recollections that have not dimmed or faded in the last seventy-five years.1987, Eva Antonia Wilbur-Cruce, “My Earliest Recollections”, in A Beautiful, Cruel Country, Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press...
Sigrid took a bittersweet trip down memory lane when Anne opened the carton of ornaments and lifted out a crumpled tinsel star.1989, Margaret Maron, Corpus Christmas (A Crime Club Book), Warner Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Mysterious Press, published 2001, →ISBN...
Molly sleeps this morning as her parents, per their promise, travel down memory lane from their just-delivered leather sofa.1989, Larry L. Meyer, “August 16: An Irish Wedding Revisited”, in My Summer with Molly: The Journal of a Second Generation Father...
A more straightforwardly nostalgic use of the family album is in oral history, which has used them as a device for family reconstitution and opening up memory lanes.1994, Raphael Samuel, “Dreamscapes”, in Theatres of Memory, volumes 1 (Past and Present in Contemporary Culture), London; New York, N.Y....

plural	memory lanes
alternative form	Memory Lane

What does memory lane mean?: Memory lane means an imaginary path along which one can take a nostalgic or sentimental journey through one's memories of the past.
How do you use memory lane in a sentence?: My “memory lane” is splotched with recollections that have not dimmed or faded in the last seventy-five years.
What part of speech is memory lane?: Memory lane can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce memory lane?: Memory lane is pronounced /ˈmɛm(ə)ɹi ˌleɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of memory lane?: The plural of memory lane is memory lanes.

Adapted from Wiktionary: memory lane (page history and authors); Memory Lane (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-memory lane.ogg.

Cite this entry: “memory lane.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/memory_lane. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.