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Highway vs Beltway - What's the difference?

highway | beltway |

As nouns the difference between highway and beltway

is that highway is a main, direct public road, especially a multi-lane, high speed thoroughfare connecting major population centers while beltway is a freeway that encircles a city.

As a proper noun Beltway is

a 64-mile Interstate freeway surrounding Washington, D.C..

As an adjective Beltway is

of or relating to the culture of Washington, D.C.; politicized.

highway

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A main, direct public road, especially a multi-lane, high speed thoroughfare connecting major population centers.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=7 citation , passage=The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.}}
  • (rail)  Any public road for vehicular traffic.
  • Hyponyms

    * (main public road) expressway, motorway

    See also

    *

    beltway

    English

    Proper noun

    (en proper noun)
  • A 64-mile Interstate freeway surrounding .
  • (mostly local usage) The expressway that surrounds another city.
  • (US, politics) The US federal government and policy and lobbying organizations, located in .
  • Derived terms

    * Beltway bandits * inside-the-Beltway * inside the Beltway * outside the Beltway

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or relating to the culture of Washington, D.C.; politicized.
  • *
  • *
  • * 2002 [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/nochild/lemann.html]
  • Your New Yorker article posed the question, "Can the president's education crusade survive Beltway politics?"''
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation