Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A crossroads.
  • noun A public square; a plaza.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a junction where one street or road crosses another

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French carrefor, from Latin quadrifurcus, four-forked : quadri-, quadri- + furca, fork.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word carrefour.

Examples

  • The site is, in one point at least, admirably well-chosen, a kind of carrefour where four valleys and as many roads meet; and thus it commands the mouths of all the gorges leading inland.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • The site is, in one point at least, admirably well-chosen, a kind of carrefour where four valleys and as many roads meet; and thus it commands the mouths of all the gorges leading inland.

    The Land of Midian — Volume 2 Richard Francis Burton 1855

  • And they serve wonderful natural wines. 9, carrefour de l'Od é on, 6th, 33-8-2610-1087

    Paris: Modern Romance Tina Isaac 2011

  • And they serve wonderful natural wines. 9, carrefour de l'Od é on, 6th, 33-8-2610-1087

    Food, Beauty and Romance in Paris 2011

  • There's a house in carrefour that has about 200 people staying there with no food and no drinks.....it's a big yard so the survivor are camping there its COTE PLAGE 22# 33....please HELP!

    Haiti earthquake resources 2010

  • January 20th, 2010 12:57 am ET got about 100 people starving to death in bertin, carrefour area any ideas on how to get food to them?

    Congressman buys one-way ticket to Haiti 2010

  • January 17th, 2010 7:42 pm ET i'm trying to locate my only brother Mario Lolo that i love so much he lived @carrefour, please if someone know him tell him to call me to let me know that he is Ok and his family.

    Looking for loved ones in Haiti 2010

  • I saw it on sale in Dubai three months ago at carrefour Stores for merely about Can$ 150.

    First 128GB USB flash drive available (but bring your wallet) | Sync Blog 2009

  • I don't understand the Hebrew, but it is clear that this group of 'peaceniks' are trying to empty a carrefour of Israeli products... posted by GayandRight @ 1:15 PM

    Boycotting Israeli products in France.... GayandRight 2009

  • La crise que nous traversons est singulière car elle se situe au carrefour de trois dimensions: l'économique, le social et l'écologique ou les 3 axes du développement durable.

    Archive 2009-04-10 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I live near the carrefour of Commercial and Federal. Is that the right use of the word?

    May 24, 2009

  • This word reminds me of going to Five Points nursery in Wilton Manors, FL with my dear mother in the 1970s.

    May 24, 2009

  • @ Poetche - it's the right use if you don't want people to know where you live. Otherwise, intersection would probably be the more effective choice.

    May 24, 2009

  • Reminds me of Carrefour the French hypermarket

    May 25, 2009

  • I agree with rolig. I'm a native English speaker, and I've never heard this word before.

    May 25, 2009

  • I expect it's French?

    May 25, 2009

  • Yes. I've never heard it used in conversation either.

    According to the OED:

    Obsolete

    A place where four ways meet, a ‘carfax’. (Formerly quite naturalized, but now treated only as French.)

    1477 CAXTON Jason 28 In alle the quarefours of the cyte. 1490 Eneydos xxvii. 100 By the grete quarfours and by wayes. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) V. ii. 362 In a quarefoure of a towne. 1600 HOLLAND Livy XXVII. iv. 628 Neere unto the carrefour or crosse waie compitum of Anagnia. Ibid. XXXVIII. xxxvi. 1005 In all quarrefours or crosse streets of the citie. 1601 Pliny I. 59 Rome..containeth..265 crosse streets or carfours. 1652 EVELYN State France Misc. (1805) 93 You walk the Streets and public Carfours. c1730 BURT Lett. N. Scotl. (1818) I. 22 It Glasgow has a spacious carrifour, where stands the cross. a1734 NORTH Exam. III. vii. 86. 572 Their Seat was in a Sort of Carfour at Chancery-Lane End.

    May 26, 2009