inroad.
An advance into enemy territory, an attempted invasion; an encroachment, an incursion.
Meaning & usage
An advance into enemy territory, an attempted invasion; an encroachment, an incursion.
Often followed by in, into, or on: initial progress made toward accomplishing a goal or solving a problem.
Three weeks into it, I am finally beginning to make inroads on this project.
Where this word comes from
The noun is derived from in + road (“(obsolete) act of riding on horseback; hostile ride against a particular area, raid”). The verb is derived from the noun.
To make advances or incursions.
To make an inroad into (something).
Where this word comes from
The noun is derived from in + road (“(obsolete) act of riding on horseback; hostile ride against a particular area, raid”). The verb is derived from the noun.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.