alley

Other forms of alley

plural

alleys·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about alley

What does alley mean?

alley means "a narrow street with walls on both sides". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in alley?

alley has 2 syllables: al-ley. The stress falls on "al". In IPA it is /ˈæli/.

What is another word for alley?

Close synonyms include alleyway, back street, bowling alley, skittle alley. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is alley a common word?

alley is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.