An avenue is a wide street, often lined with trees. In many cities, avenues run in one direction while streets run perpendicular to them, creating a grid that makes navigation easier. New York City's famous Fifth Avenue and Paris's Champs-Élysées are both grand avenues where people shop, stroll, and gather.

The word also means a way to achieve something or a path toward a goal. If you're struggling with a math problem, your teacher might suggest trying a different avenue of approach, meaning a new method or strategy. A scientist exploring avenues of research is considering various directions her work might take. When someone says “we've exhausted every avenue,” they mean they've tried every possible way to solve a problem.

This second meaning connects to the first: just as a physical avenue provides a route through a city, a figurative avenue provides a route toward accomplishing something. Whether you're walking down a tree-lined avenue or pursuing a new avenue for your science fair project, you're following a path that might lead somewhere interesting.