way

Noun (1)

way (plural ways)

1. A road, a direction, a (physical or conceptual) path from one place to another.
   • Do you know the way to the airport? Come this way and I'll show you a shortcut.
   • We lied our way through the debriefing.
2. A means to enter or leave a place.
   • We got into the cinema through the back way.
   • Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
3. A roughly-defined geographical area.
   • If you're ever 'round this way, come over and visit me.
4. Distance in general
   • It's a long way from here.
   • Twenty miles surely is a long way to walk.
5. A method or manner of doing something; a mannerism.
   • He's finally seen the error of his ways.
   • You're going about it the wrong way. He's known for his quirky ways. I don't like the way she looks at me.
   1. (usually) A set of values and customs associated with and seen as central to the identity of a group of people.
6. A state or condition
   • He's in a bad way.
   • When I returned home, I found my house and belongings in a most terrible way.
7. Possibility (usually in the phrases ‘any way’ and ‘no way’).
   • There's no way I'm going to clean up after you.
8. Determined course; resolved mode of action or conduct.
   • My little sister always whines until she gets her way.
9. (Germanic) A tradition within the modern pagan faith of Heathenry, dedication to a specific deity or craft, Way of wyrd, Way of runes, Way of Thor etc.
   • To walk the Way of the Runes, you must experience the runes as they manifest both in the part of Midgard that lies outside yourself and the worlds within. (Diana Paxson)
10. (uncountable) Speed, progress, momentum.
    • Immediately afterwards, a quick and eager short dark man came into the room with so much way upon him that he was within a foot of Clennam before he could stop.1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC
    • Ten minutes into the run Tang slowed, Welch calling out her speed as she lost way.1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books, published 2003, page 343
11. A degree, an amount, a sense.
    • In a significant way, crocodiles and alligators are similar.
    • That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
12. (US, As the head of an interjectory clause, followed by an infinitive starting with “to”) Acknowledges that a task has been done well, chiefly in expressions of sarcastic congratulation.
    • Way to ruin the moment, guys.
    • Jimmy leaned forward holding his ear, the personification of naïveté, looking as young as a baby with his oh-so-innocent face. “Oh, way to get us busted, Jimmy,” Curt hissed under his breath.2001, Joshua Nedelman, The Garden of Eastern, page 36
13. (plural, plural-only) The timbers of shipyard stocks that slope into the water and along which a ship or large boat is launched.
    • By the time the Mauretania was ready for launching a total weight of 16,800 tons was standing in the berth, and this represented the heaviest weight that had ever been sent down the ways up to that time.1912, Fredrick A. Talbot, Steamship Conquest of the World, page 36
14. (plural, usually) A guiding surface on the bed of a planer, lathe, etc. along which a table or carriage moves; usually in pairs.

Interjection

1. (slang) Yes; it is true; it is possible.
   • - We searched the vehicle. It was clean, so we did the body cavity searches.
     - No way.
     - Way!1992, Wayne's World (film)
   • We repeated this ritual of “no way - way, no way - way” over the years.2011, William Schwenn, Dogs of Meadowbrook

   Synonyms:

   yes way

Verb

way (third-person singular simple present ways, present participle waying, simple past and past participle wayed)

1. (obsolete) To travel.
   • on a time as they together way'd, / He made him open chalenge[…].1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii
   • Laötze says, “The Name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The Way that can be wayed, is not the Eternal Way.” Infinite wisdom is beyond the human power to understand.1919, Gotō Shinpei, "Japanese Statesman on Christian Missions", The Missionary Review, Volume 42, p. 660

Adverb

way (not comparable)

1. (informal) Far.
   • I used to live way over there.
   • The farmhouse is way down the bottom of the hill.
2. (informal) Much, far, by a great degree.
   • I'm a way better singer than Emma.
   • I'm way too tired to do that.

   Synonyms:

   far, much, a lot, loads

3. (slang) Very.
   • I'm way tired.
   • String theory is way cool, except for the math.

   Synonyms:

   so, very, so much

Adjective

way (not comparable)

1. (attributive, informal) Extreme, far
   • Sitting in the way back of the bus
   • some day in the way future me and @HowdyDuda are gonna have to come for a visit…2022 August 19, @DazzlerAOA, Twitter

Noun (2)

way (plural ways)

1. (obsolete) A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches.

   Synonyms:

   web

Noun (3)

way (plural ways)

1. The letter for the w sound in Pitman shorthand.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Way

Way

1. Christianity.
   • But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.1946, The Bible, Revised Standard Version, Acts 9:1-2
2. (Chinese) Synonym of Tao: the way of nature and/or the ideal way in which to live one's life.

   Synonyms:

   Tao

3. (abbreviation, clipping, Sussex) Clipping of South Downs Way.
   • We're walking along the Way now.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Way

Way

1. A surname.
2. An unincorporated community in Madison County, Mississippi, United States.
3. A hamlet in Minster parish, Thanet district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR3265).