Meaning & use

cul-de-sac

noun·Everyday

A street or passage that is closed at one end, forming a dead end.

See it in a sentence

Their house sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac with little traffic.

Children often play safely in the cul-de-sac since cars rarely pass through.

A note on using this word

The word comes from French, and the standard English spelling keeps the hyphens: cul-de-sac, not culdesac.

Words with a similar meaning

dead end

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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