Meaning & use
oncoming traffic
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Cars and other vehicles that are moving along a road toward you from the opposite direction.
Grammar: Treated as a mass noun with a singular verb: oncoming traffic was heavy, not were heavy.
Patterns
- wait for oncoming traffic
- turn across oncoming traffic
- swerve into oncoming traffic
She waited for a gap in oncoming traffic before turning right.
Oncoming traffic flashed its lights to warn us about the fallen branch.
The narrow lane left no room to pass with oncoming traffic.
Common combinations
- wait for oncoming traffic
- Wait for oncoming traffic to clear before you overtake.
- cross oncoming traffic
- Crossing oncoming traffic to enter the shop is risky on this road.
- swerve into oncoming traffic
- The van swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid a deer.
- dazzled by oncoming traffic
- He was dazzled by oncoming traffic at night in the rain.
- yield to oncoming traffic
- Drivers must yield to oncoming traffic when turning left.
Synonyms and how they differ
- approaching vehicles
- Approaching vehicles is a plainer, countable phrase that need not mean the opposite lane, while oncoming traffic specifically faces you.
- opposing traffic
- Opposing traffic is more formal and common in road rules, but it carries the same idea of the lane going the other way.
- incoming traffic
- Incoming traffic usually refers to vehicles entering a place such as a city or a network, not those facing you on the road.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: oncoming traffic or incoming traffic?
oncoming traffic vs incoming traffic
Incoming traffic describes vehicles or data entering somewhere, while oncoming traffic is about vehicles heading directly toward you on a road.
Practice
Before turning left across the highway, you must give way to ___.
Choose one answer.
Oncoming traffic is the set of vehicles driving toward you in the opposite lane, which is what you cross when turning left. The other options are not natural road terms.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “oncoming traffic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.