Word.ws English Dictionary

on rails

on rails prepositional phrase: rail-based.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Rail-based.
  2. Constrained to travel along a preset fixed path.
    • So, first of all, let's clear it out of the way: it is not possible to deorbit any of the moons in the game. They are all on rails, and nothing you can do will adjust their orbit in any way whatsoever.2012 November 10, Scott Manley, 0:18 from the start, in What does it Take To Deorbit A Moon In Kerbal Space Program, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2022
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, rails.

Questions about on rails

What does on rails mean?
On rails means rail-based.
What part of speech is on rails?
On rails is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on rails in the dictionary

  1. on pins and needles
  2. on point
  3. on principle
  4. on pump
  5. on purpose
  6. on rails
  7. on rare form
  8. on read
  9. on record
  10. on reflection
  11. on remand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on rails (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-on rails.wav.

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