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During my test driving, which comprised about 45 miles, in a variety of modes and at a variety of speeds including close to 100mph on a German autobahn, the car achieved close to 3 miles per kWh.—James Morris, Forbes.com, 29 Mar. 2025 The other side: Richmond, Virginia, is a veritable autobahn by comparison, with drivers making the same distance trip in under 10 minutes on average.—Shawna Chen, Axios, 8 Jan. 2025 The top speed of 218 mph went untested, but if the speedometer on one example taped on the autobahn is to believed, the LaFerrari can actually punch its way all the way to 231 mph.—Will Sabel Courtney, Robb Report, 11 Dec. 2024 Nearly every weekday morning, a device leaves a two-story home near Wiesbaden, Germany, and makes a 15-minute commute along a major autobahn.—Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED, 19 Nov. 2024 See All Example Sentences for autobahn
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from German Autobahn, from Autoauto entry 1 + Bahn "path, way, lane," going back to Middle High German ban, bane "cleared path, track," akin to Middle Low German & Middle Dutch bāne in same sense, of uncertain origin
Note:
The Germanic etymon represented by Bahn is perhaps akin to Old High German bano "killer, murderer," Old English bana, etc. (see bane entry 1), if both descend from a verb meaning "strike, beat down." See Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Band 1, pp. 460-61.
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