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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
Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 14 July 2025
Trump made inroads with middle-class voters in the 2024 election, who previously broke for the Democrats by around 56 percent in 2020, with 42 percent of voters on incomes between $50,000-$100,000 voting for Trump.
—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 July 2025
Crypto Expansion Needs Better Rule Making As cryptoassets continue to make inroads into the TradFi landscape, crypto adjacent services such as staking, mining, and even crypto lending will need to be thought about from a policy perspective moving forward.
—Sean Stein Smith, Forbes.com, 11 July 2025
Well-known, mainstream products are making inroads as well, sponsoring teams and tournaments.
—Miami Herald, 7 July 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 19 Jul. 2025.
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