A road is a prepared path for vehicles and people to travel from one place to another. Roads have smooth, hard surfaces like asphalt or concrete that make travel faster and easier than crossing rough ground. The longest roads stretch for thousands of miles across continents, while the shortest might just connect a house to the nearest street.

Roads revolutionized human civilization. Ancient Romans built stone roads throughout their empire so armies and merchants could move quickly. Before good roads existed, traveling even short distances could take days of struggling through mud, rocks, and forests. A journey that once took a week on a dirt path might take just an hour on a modern highway.

The word also means a path or route toward something, not literally but in the sense of progress. When someone talks about the road to success, they mean the journey of hard work and learning that leads to achievement. If your teacher says you're on the road to mastering fractions, she means you're making progress toward that goal. Taking the high road means choosing to act with integrity even when it's difficult, while roadblocks are obstacles that make progress more difficult.