Word of the Day: journey
Word class: noun and verb
Simple meaning: a trip from one place to another, especially when it takes time or covers a long distance.
Listen to the pronunciation
What does journey mean?
A journey is the experience of travelling between places. The word can describe a physical trip by foot, train, ship, or another form of transport. It often draws attention to what happens along the way, not only to the destination. That makes it useful when a trip changes a character or teaches someone something important.
The word can also describe a long process of change. A writer might call education a journey because understanding develops step by step. As a verb, journey means to travel, although this use is more literary than the everyday verb travel. The plural noun is journeys, and the past-tense verb is journeyed.
Examples
- The overnight train journey gave them time to plan the next day.
- Her journey toward fluency began with ten minutes of listening each morning.
- The explorers journeyed across the plain before the weather changed.
Use the word while you listen
Listen to The Time Machine and think about the Traveller’s unusual journey. Write one sentence about where he goes and another about how the experience changes his view of society. This exercise connects a common travel word with both plot and character development.
Related words: trip, voyage, expedition, passage.
Swedish: resa · German: Reise · French: voyage.
Sources and audio credit
The meaning, forms, and word history were checked against Wiktionary. BookAud wrote the explanation and examples. The British English pronunciation was recorded by Judith Franck for the Shtooka Project and is available from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license.