crossroads
noun
Form of crossroad , plural of crossroad.
Simple meaning
A decision point.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krawsrohdzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹɔsɹoʊdz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
figurativelyby analogy
A decision point; a turning point or opportunity to change a direction, a course, or a goal.
A point where a choice must be made
“Freud's work stands at the crossroads between psychology and neurology.”
A crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made
A place where one road crosses another; an intersection of two or more roads.
figurativelyby extension
A centrally located position.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (figuratively, by analogy) A decision point; a turning point or opportunity to change a direction, a course, or a goal.
Used this way, crossroads is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use crossroads
- “Freud's work stands at the crossroads between psychology and neurology.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A junction where one street or road crosses another.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: decision point
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.