cross-country

1. 1.

   not following tracks or roads

   “they liked to race cross-country”
2. 2.

   across the countryside

   “the river runs cross-country”

   “the road runs cross-country”

Questions about cross-country

What does cross-country mean?

cross-country means "not following tracks or roads". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in cross-country?

cross-country has 3 syllables: cros-s-coun-try. The stress falls on "cros". In IPA it is /ˈkɹɔˌskʌntɹi/.

Is cross-country a common word?

cross-country is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.