dead end

1. 1.

   a passage with access only at one end

   Synonymsculcul de sac

   Broaderpassage
2. 2.

   a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible

   “reached an impasse on the negotiations”

   Synonymsdeadlockimpassestalematestandstill

   Broadersituation

Questions about dead end

What does dead end mean?

dead end means "a passage with access only at one end". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for dead end?

Close synonyms include cul, cul de sac, deadlock, impasse, stalemate. 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 dead end a common word?

dead end is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.