"dead-end" meaning in English

See dead-end in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈdɛdɛnd/ [adjective], /dɛdˈɛnd/ [noun, verb] Audio: en-us-dead-end.ogg [General-American] Forms: more dead-end [comparative], most dead-end [superlative]
Rhymes: (noun, verb) -ɛnd Head templates: {{en-adj}} dead-end (comparative more dead-end, superlative most dead-end)
  1. Going nowhere; blocked. Translations (blocked): ἀδιέξοδος (adiéxodos) (Ancient Greek), задънен (zadǎnen) (Bulgarian), umpi- (Finnish), sans issue (French), buntu (Indonesian)
    Sense id: en-dead-end-en-adj-10np~bLK Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 43 27 1 29
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: deadend

Noun

IPA: /ˈdɛdɛnd/ [adjective], /dɛdˈɛnd/ [noun, verb] Audio: en-us-dead-end.ogg [General-American] Forms: dead-ends [plural]
Rhymes: (noun, verb) -ɛnd Head templates: {{en-noun}} dead-end (plural dead-ends)
  1. A road with no exit.
    Sense id: en-dead-end-en-noun--M~S0vqu
  2. (by extension, figuratively) A position that offers no hope of progress. Tags: broadly, figuratively
    Sense id: en-dead-end-en-noun-fxTPo6Iw
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: deadend

Verb

IPA: /ˈdɛdɛnd/ [adjective], /dɛdˈɛnd/ [noun, verb] Audio: en-us-dead-end.ogg [General-American] Forms: dead-ends [present, singular, third-person], dead-ending [participle, present], dead-ended [participle, past], dead-ended [past]
Rhymes: (noun, verb) -ɛnd Head templates: {{en-verb}} dead-end (third-person singular simple present dead-ends, present participle dead-ending, simple past and past participle dead-ended)
  1. (US) To come to a dead-end. Tags: US
    Sense id: en-dead-end-en-verb-hnD1FGkl Categories (other): American English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: deadend

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for dead-end meaning in English (4.6kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more dead-end",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most dead-end",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead-end (comparative more dead-end, superlative most dead-end)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "43 27 1 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "a dead-end street"
        },
        {
          "text": "a dead-end job"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, page 124",
          "text": "[...] as it approached Platform 9 at Moorgate, the train, which ought to have been going at 15 miles an hour, was travelling at 35 m.p.h., and apparently accelerating. It smashed into the head wall of the 60-foot dead-end tunnel because, as we have seen, the Metropolitan's plans to extend the line south had come to nothing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Going nowhere; blocked."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead-end-en-adj-10np~bLK",
      "links": [
        [
          "nowhere",
          "nowhere"
        ],
        [
          "blocked",
          "blocked"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "zadǎnen",
          "sense": "blocked",
          "word": "задънен"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "blocked",
          "word": "umpi-"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "blocked",
          "word": "sans issue"
        },
        {
          "code": "grc",
          "lang": "Ancient Greek",
          "roman": "adiéxodos",
          "sense": "blocked",
          "word": "ἀδιέξοδος"
        },
        {
          "code": "id",
          "lang": "Indonesian",
          "sense": "blocked",
          "word": "buntu"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɛdɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛdˈɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "(noun, verb) -ɛnd"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg/En-us-dead-end.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "deadend"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead-end"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead-ends",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dead-ending",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dead-ended",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dead-ended",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead-end (third-person singular simple present dead-ends, present participle dead-ending, simple past and past participle dead-ended)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Watch out! The road dead-ends in 200 yards and there's nowhere to turn around!"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To come to a dead-end."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead-end-en-verb-hnD1FGkl",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To come to a dead-end."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɛdɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛdˈɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "(noun, verb) -ɛnd"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg/En-us-dead-end.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "deadend"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead-end"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead-ends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead-end (plural dead-ends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We turned into the street and realised it was a dead-end."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A road with no exit."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead-end-en-noun--M~S0vqu"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Mary realised her relationship with Jim had hit a dead-end."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A position that offers no hope of progress."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead-end-en-noun-fxTPo6Iw",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figuratively) A position that offers no hope of progress."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɛdɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛdˈɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "(noun, verb) -ɛnd"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg/En-us-dead-end.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "deadend"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead-end"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English adjectives",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛnd",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛnd/2 syllables"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more dead-end",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most dead-end",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead-end (comparative more dead-end, superlative most dead-end)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "a dead-end street"
        },
        {
          "text": "a dead-end job"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, page 124",
          "text": "[...] as it approached Platform 9 at Moorgate, the train, which ought to have been going at 15 miles an hour, was travelling at 35 m.p.h., and apparently accelerating. It smashed into the head wall of the 60-foot dead-end tunnel because, as we have seen, the Metropolitan's plans to extend the line south had come to nothing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Going nowhere; blocked."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "nowhere",
          "nowhere"
        ],
        [
          "blocked",
          "blocked"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɛdɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛdˈɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "(noun, verb) -ɛnd"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg/En-us-dead-end.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "deadend"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "zadǎnen",
      "sense": "blocked",
      "word": "задънен"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "blocked",
      "word": "umpi-"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "blocked",
      "word": "sans issue"
    },
    {
      "code": "grc",
      "lang": "Ancient Greek",
      "roman": "adiéxodos",
      "sense": "blocked",
      "word": "ἀδιέξοδος"
    },
    {
      "code": "id",
      "lang": "Indonesian",
      "sense": "blocked",
      "word": "buntu"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead-end"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English adjectives",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛnd",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛnd/2 syllables"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead-ends",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dead-ending",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dead-ended",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dead-ended",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead-end (third-person singular simple present dead-ends, present participle dead-ending, simple past and past participle dead-ended)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Watch out! The road dead-ends in 200 yards and there's nowhere to turn around!"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To come to a dead-end."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) To come to a dead-end."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɛdɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛdˈɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "(noun, verb) -ɛnd"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg/En-us-dead-end.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "deadend"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead-end"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English adjectives",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛnd",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛnd/2 syllables"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead-ends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dead-end (plural dead-ends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We turned into the street and realised it was a dead-end."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A road with no exit."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Mary realised her relationship with Jim had hit a dead-end."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A position that offers no hope of progress."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, figuratively) A position that offers no hope of progress."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɛdɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "adjective"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/dɛdˈɛnd/",
      "tags": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "(noun, verb) -ɛnd"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg/En-us-dead-end.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/En-us-dead-end.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (GA)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "deadend"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead-end"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.