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Inroad is a combination of in and road, both of which are pretty mundane, as far as words go. But the first-and-oldest-meaning of inroad hints at a meaning of road other than the "way for traveling" one. Beginning back in the days of Old English, road referred to an armed hostile incursion made on horseback. (Raid comes from this use of road and also formerly specified incursions on horseback.) Road, as well as inroad, has lost its violent connotation. While inroads are often made at the expense of someone or something, they are at times simply advances, as when an artist is said to be "making inroads into a community."
Examples of inroad in a Sentence
Jeremy Bogaisky, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025
Thailand and Malaysia, however, are making inroads into the sector, owing to lower costs and improving infrastructure.
—Kevin Lim, CNBC, 17 Mar. 2025
Cuomo has made inroads in key Democratic constituencies like the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn and the Asian-American community in Queens.
—Ryan Silverstein, New York Daily News, 16 Mar. 2025
Besides Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has won market share in PCs and servers — and is better poised than Intel to make inroads in AI chips.
—Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for inroad
Cite this Entry
“Inroad.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inroad. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.
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