parking lot

parking lot noun: a designated area, usually outdoors and divided into marked spaces, intended for the temporary parking of motor vehicles.

Image: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

parking lot (plural parking lots)

(Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, US) A designated area, usually outdoors and divided into marked spaces, intended for the temporary parking of motor vehicles.
- Meronyms: parking space, parking spot, parking place
- Should we park in that parking lot, or in the garage up the street?
Synonyms:

parking area
(US, figuratively, humorous) A road blocked by stop-start traffic.
- The 101 was a parking lot again today.
(especially, figuratively) A holding area in which to set aside some question or concern for likely future consideration.
- Let's put this question in the parking lot for now, and we'll follow up on it later this week.
(US, figuratively) A place in a state of complete destruction, especially one achieved through military means.
- America believed it had smashed Israel’s greatest enemy and turned Iraq into a parking lot, so now Israel could take risks it had never been able to take before.1992 April 15, Dore Gold, “The U.S.-Israel Relationship: Mounting Misperceptions in Washington”, in Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
- I was one of the people understanding the need to turn Afghanistan into a parking lot on the way to finding Bin Laden and bringing him to justice.2005, John Grevstad, Red State, Blue State: Defending the Liberal Jesus and Blue State Morality from Red State Religion and Hypocrisy, →ISBN, page 182

open area, generally paved, where automobiles may be left when not in use: कार पार्क kār pārk, पार्किंग pārkiṅg

open area, generally paved, where automobiles may be left when not in use: கார் பார்க் kār pārk

open area, generally paved, where automobiles may be left when not in use: پارْکِن٘گ pārkiṅg, گاڑی اِحاطَہ gāṛī ihāta

open area, generally paved, where automobiles may be left when not in use: مَوْقِف سَيَّارَات mawqif sayyārāt, مَوْقِف mawqif

More languagesFewer languages

parking lot in Malay: tempat letak kereta
parking lot in Indonesian: lapangan parkir, parkiran, pelataran parkir
parking lot in Thai: ที่จอดรถ tîi-jɔ̀ɔt-rót, สถานที่จอดรถ sà-tǎan-tîi jòt rót
parking lot in Vietnamese: bãi giữ xe, bãi đậu xe, bãi đỗ xe
parking lot in Myanmar: ယာဉ်ရပ် yanyrap

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.1970, Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi”:
Once there were parking lots / Now it's a peaceful oasis1988, “(Nothing But) Flowers”, in Naked, performed by Talking Heads:
Eager for “round two,” a member of Israel’s regional council adjoining Gaza exhorted the military that next time they should “flatten Gaza into a parking lot, destroy them.”2018, Norman G. Finkelstein, Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom, →ISBN, page 56:
Prevost said that after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israelis by members of Hamas, “I’d have flattened Gaza and made it a parking lot.”2025 May 13, Richard Fausset, quoting Louis Prevost, “The Pope’s Florida Brother, a MAGA Disciple, Plans to ‘Tone It Down’”, in The New...

plural	parking lots

What does parking lot mean?: Parking lot means a designated area, usually outdoors and divided into marked spaces, intended for the temporary parking of motor vehicles.
What is parking lot in Hindi?: Parking lot in Hindi is कार पार्क (kār pārk), पार्किंग (pārkiṅg). See Parking lot meaning in Hindi.
How do you use parking lot in a sentence?: They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
What part of speech is parking lot?: Parking lot is a noun.
What is the plural of parking lot?: The plural of parking lot is parking lots.

Adapted from Wiktionary: parking lot (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-parking lot.wav.

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