"roadkill" meaning in English

See roadkill in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈɹəʊdˌkɪl/ [UK], /ˈɹoʊdˌkɪl/ [Canada, General-American] Audio: En-us-roadkill.oga [US] Forms: roadkills [plural], road kill [alternative]
Etymology: Etymology tree English road Dutch kilbor. English kill English roadkill From road + kill. Etymology templates: {{ety|en|:af|road|kill|tree=1}} Etymology tree English road Dutch kilbor. English kill English roadkill [Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from", "terms" : [ { "id" : "kill", "children" : [ ], "status" : "missing", "lang_name" : "Dutch", "term" : "kil", "lang" : "nl" } ], "keyword" : "bor" } ], "lang_name" : "English", "term" : "kill", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "en" } ], "keyword_label" : "From", "is_group" : true, "keyword" : "affix" } ], "lang_name" : "English", "term" : "roadkill", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "en" }" data-lang="en" data-title="roadkill">, {{compound|en|road|kill}} road + kill Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} roadkill (usually uncountable, plural roadkills)
  1. (chiefly US, automotive) The killing of an animal by a road vehicle. Tags: US, uncountable, usually
    Sense id: en-roadkill-en-noun-kNnLtmSI Categories (other): American English, Automotive, English entries with etymon, Pages with 1 entry, Death Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 25 27 33 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 35 35 12 Disambiguation of Death: 35 35 29 1 Topics: automotive, transport, vehicles
  2. (chiefly US, automotive) The killing of an animal by a road vehicle.
    (video games) A successful kill in a deathmatch game by hitting an opponent with a road vehicle. A point or score (when considered collectively) gained by successfully killing opponents by a road vehiclein a deathmatch game.
    Tags: US, uncountable, usually
    Sense id: en-roadkill-en-noun--URLpVBB Categories (other): American English, Automotive, Video games, English entries with etymon, Pages with 1 entry, Death Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 25 27 33 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 35 35 12 Disambiguation of Death: 35 35 29 1 Topics: automotive, transport, vehicles, video-games
  3. (chiefly US, automotive, uncountable) The animal or animals so killed. Tags: US, uncountable, usually Synonyms: road pizza
    Sense id: en-roadkill-en-noun-bXlXciRH Categories (other): American English, Automotive, English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons, English entries with etymology trees, English entries with etymon, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages using etymon with no ID, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Pages with etymology trees, Pages with etymon, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Death Disambiguation of English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons: 25 26 34 15 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology trees: 24 26 33 16 Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 25 27 33 15 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 25 42 9 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 20 23 39 18 Disambiguation of Pages using etymon with no ID: 20 23 38 19 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 35 35 12 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 23 23 39 15 Disambiguation of Pages with etymology trees: 20 20 39 21 Disambiguation of Pages with etymon: 20 20 40 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 18 18 44 21 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 18 18 44 21 Disambiguation of Death: 35 35 29 1 Topics: automotive, transport, vehicles
  4. (by extension) A helpless victim. Tags: broadly, uncountable, usually
    Sense id: en-roadkill-en-noun-FqQMusQ0 Categories (other): English entries with etymon, Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of English entries with etymon: 25 27 33 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 18 35 35 12
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: roadkilled Translations (animal killed by a road vehicle): auton alle jäänyt eläin (Finnish), überfahrenes Tier [neuter] (German)
Disambiguation of 'animal killed by a road vehicle': 31 31 34 4

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0",
      "word": "roadkilled"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":af",
        "3": "road",
        "4": "kill",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nEnglish road\nDutch kilbor.\nEnglish kill\nEnglish roadkill\n[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"kill\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"missing\", \"lang_name\" : \"Dutch\", \"term\" : \"kil\", \"lang\" : \"nl\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"kill\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"is_group\" : true, \"keyword\" : \"affix\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"roadkill\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"roadkill\">",
      "name": "ety"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "road",
        "3": "kill"
      },
      "expansion": "road + kill",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish road\nDutch kilbor.\nEnglish kill\nEnglish roadkill\nFrom road + kill.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "roadkills",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "road kill",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "roadkill (usually uncountable, plural roadkills)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Automotive",
          "orig": "en:Automotive",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 27 33 15",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 35 35 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 35 29 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The killing of an animal by a road vehicle."
      ],
      "id": "en-roadkill-en-noun-kNnLtmSI",
      "links": [
        [
          "automotive",
          "automotive"
        ],
        [
          "killing",
          "killing"
        ],
        [
          "animal",
          "animal"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, automotive) The killing of an animal by a road vehicle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "automotive",
        "transport",
        "vehicles"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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          "name": "Automotive",
          "orig": "en:Automotive",
          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Video games",
          "orig": "en:Video games",
          "parents": [],
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          "_dis": "25 27 33 15",
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        {
          "_dis": "35 35 29 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The killing of an animal by a road vehicle.",
        "A successful kill in a deathmatch game by hitting an opponent with a road vehicle. A point or score (when considered collectively) gained by successfully killing opponents by a road vehiclein a deathmatch game."
      ],
      "id": "en-roadkill-en-noun--URLpVBB",
      "links": [
        [
          "automotive",
          "automotive"
        ],
        [
          "killing",
          "killing"
        ],
        [
          "animal",
          "animal"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "video game",
          "video game"
        ],
        [
          "deathmatch",
          "deathmatch"
        ],
        [
          "gam",
          "gam"
        ],
        [
          "opponent",
          "opponent"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, automotive) The killing of an animal by a road vehicle.",
        "(video games) A successful kill in a deathmatch game by hitting an opponent with a road vehicle. A point or score (when considered collectively) gained by successfully killing opponents by a road vehiclein a deathmatch game."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "automotive",
        "transport",
        "vehicles",
        "video-games"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Automotive",
          "orig": "en:Automotive",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 26 34 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
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          "_dis": "24 26 33 16",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with etymon",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
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          "_dis": "23 25 42 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
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          "_dis": "20 23 39 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 23 38 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages using etymon with no ID",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 35 35 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 23 39 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 20 39 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with etymology trees",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 20 40 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with etymon",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 18 44 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 18 44 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 35 29 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              125,
              133
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:",
          "text": "The van was heading straight for her and travelling faster and faster by the second. Zoe had to do something or she would be roadkill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The animal or animals so killed."
      ],
      "id": "en-roadkill-en-noun-bXlXciRH",
      "links": [
        [
          "automotive",
          "automotive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, automotive, uncountable) The animal or animals so killed."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "road pizza"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "automotive",
        "transport",
        "vehicles"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "25 27 33 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with etymon",
          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 35 35 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A helpless victim."
      ],
      "id": "en-roadkill-en-noun-FqQMusQ0",
      "links": [
        [
          "helpless",
          "helpless"
        ],
        [
          "victim",
          "victim"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) A helpless victim."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɹəʊdˌkɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɹoʊdˌkɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-us-roadkill.oga",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2a/En-us-roadkill.oga/En-us-roadkill.oga.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/En-us-roadkill.oga",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "_dis1": "31 31 34 4",
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "animal killed by a road vehicle",
      "word": "auton alle jäänyt eläin"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "31 31 34 4",
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "animal killed by a road vehicle",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "überfahrenes Tier"
    }
  ],
  "word": "roadkill"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries referencing pages with etymology sections missing etymons",
    "English entries with etymology trees",
    "English entries with etymon",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages using etymon with no ID",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Pages with etymology trees",
    "Pages with etymon",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "en:Death"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "roadkilled"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":af",
        "3": "road",
        "4": "kill",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nEnglish road\nDutch kilbor.\nEnglish kill\nEnglish roadkill\n[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"kill\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"missing\", \"lang_name\" : \"Dutch\", \"term\" : \"kil\", \"lang\" : \"nl\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"kill\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"is_group\" : true, \"keyword\" : \"affix\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"roadkill\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"roadkill\">",
      "name": "ety"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "road",
        "3": "kill"
      },
      "expansion": "road + kill",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish road\nDutch kilbor.\nEnglish kill\nEnglish roadkill\nFrom road + kill.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "roadkills",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "road kill",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "roadkill (usually uncountable, plural roadkills)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "en:Automotive"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The killing of an animal by a road vehicle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "automotive",
          "automotive"
        ],
        [
          "killing",
          "killing"
        ],
        [
          "animal",
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        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, automotive) The killing of an animal by a road vehicle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "automotive",
        "transport",
        "vehicles"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "en:Automotive",
        "en:Video games"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The killing of an animal by a road vehicle.",
        "A successful kill in a deathmatch game by hitting an opponent with a road vehicle. A point or score (when considered collectively) gained by successfully killing opponents by a road vehiclein a deathmatch game."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "automotive",
          "automotive"
        ],
        [
          "killing",
          "killing"
        ],
        [
          "animal",
          "animal"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "video game",
          "video game"
        ],
        [
          "deathmatch",
          "deathmatch"
        ],
        [
          "gam",
          "gam"
        ],
        [
          "opponent",
          "opponent"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ],
        [
          "road",
          "road"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, automotive) The killing of an animal by a road vehicle.",
        "(video games) A successful kill in a deathmatch game by hitting an opponent with a road vehicle. A point or score (when considered collectively) gained by successfully killing opponents by a road vehiclein a deathmatch game."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "automotive",
        "transport",
        "vehicles",
        "video-games"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "en:Automotive"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              125,
              133
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:",
          "text": "The van was heading straight for her and travelling faster and faster by the second. Zoe had to do something or she would be roadkill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The animal or animals so killed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "automotive",
          "automotive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, automotive, uncountable) The animal or animals so killed."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "road pizza"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "automotive",
        "transport",
        "vehicles"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A helpless victim."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "helpless",
          "helpless"
        ],
        [
          "victim",
          "victim"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) A helpless victim."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɹəʊdˌkɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɹoʊdˌkɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-us-roadkill.oga",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2a/En-us-roadkill.oga/En-us-roadkill.oga.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/En-us-roadkill.oga",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "animal killed by a road vehicle",
      "word": "auton alle jäänyt eläin"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "animal killed by a road vehicle",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "überfahrenes Tier"
    }
  ],
  "word": "roadkill"
}

Download raw JSONL data for roadkill meaning in English (4.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). 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.