viaduct
pronunciation
How to pronounce viaduct in British English:
UK [ˈvaɪədʌkt]
How to pronounce viaduct in American English:
US [ˈvaɪəˌdʌkt]
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- Noun:
- bridge consisting of a series of arches supported by piers used to carry a road (or railroad) over a valley
Word Origin
- viaduct (n.)
- 1816, from Latin via "road" (see via) + -duct as in aqueduct. French viaduc is a 19c. English loan-word. An extensive bridge consisting, strictly of a series of arches of masonry, erected for the purpose of conducting a road or a railway a valley or a district of low level, or over existing channels of communication, where an embankment would be impracticable or inexpedient; more widely, any elevated roadway which artificial constructions of timber, iron, bricks, or stonework are established. [Century Dictionary] But the word apparently was coined by English landscape gardener Humphry Repton (1752-1818) for an architectural feature, "a form of bridge adapted to the purposes of passing over, which may unite strength with grace, or use with beauty ...."
Example
- 1. Here , stranded passengers at guangzhou railway station wait below a viaduct in january 2008 .
- 2. Bruised by the academy 's snub , he has tears in his eyes and a rope around his body , and he throws himself from a giant viaduct .
- 3. Concern about thousands of commuters being crushed between slabs of falling concrete has pushed the city , state and federal governments to approve a plan that would replace the viaduct with a tunnel .
- 4. The geotube building is covered in a vascular pipe system following a grid of structural lattice and is situated in a salt-water pond , carried to the building from the adjacent persian gulf via an underground viaduct .
- 5. It will cost 6 million to repair the viaduct over the ribblehead valley .