footbridge

IPA/ˈfʊtbrɪdʒ/
IPA/ˈfʊtbrɪdʒ/

footbridge — noun

  • footbridgesingular
  • footbridgesplural

1. A small, narrow bridge built for people to walk across, especially over a road,

1.nounB1
Definition

A small, narrow bridge built for people to walk across, especially over a road, railway line, or river so that walkers can cross without danger from vehicles or trains.

Example

The old stone footbridge over the stream was built more than a hundred years ago.

collocation: stone footbridge / wooden footbridge

Every morning the children use the footbridge to cross the busy road near their school.

purpose: use + footbridge + to cross [obstacle]

Common collocations
  • cross a footbridge
  • build a footbridge
  • use a footbridge
  • wooden footbridge
  • stone footbridge
  • narrow footbridge
  • old footbridge
  • temporary footbridge
Synonyms
  • pedestrian bridge

    more formal or official term; often used in city planning or engineering contexts

  • walkway

    broader meaning — any path for walking, not necessarily crossing an obstacle; may be at ground level

  • overpass

    a bridge that carries a road or path over another road; can be for vehicles too, not only pedestrians

Usage Note

Frequently used with a material adjective (stone, wooden, iron) or a location phrase (across + road/river/railway) to say where the footbridge is built. The word is a compound noun (foot + bridge) — learners sometimes misspell it as two separate words.

Common Mistakes

We walked over a foot bridge in the park.
We walked over a footbridge in the park.
'footbridge' is a single compound word, not two words.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Footbridge and pedestrian bridge refer to the same kind of structure — a bridge for people on foot. Footbridge is the more everyday word used in casual conversation (e.g. 'Let's take the footbridge across the river'), while pedestrian bridge sounds more official and appears in city-planning documents or news reports. Walkway is a broader term: it can be a path in a park, a corridor in a building, or a bridge — it does not always cross an obstacle. Overpass is the most different: it describes any bridge that passes over a road or railway, and it can carry vehicles as well as pedestrians. For example, a highway overpass carries cars, while a footbridge carries only walkers. If you are talking about getting from one side of a busy street to the other on foot, footbridge is the clearest and most natural choice.

footbridge ↗pedestrian bridgewalkway ↗overpass ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • footbridge across [road/river/railway]
  • footbridge over [stream/canal/valley]

Phrases

  • cross a footbridge
  • build a footbridge
  • use a footbridge
  • walk across a footbridge

Prepositions

  • across a footbridge
  • over a footbridge
  • on a footbridge
  • to a footbridge

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Footbridge is a compound noun formed from Old English 'fōt' (foot) and 'brycg' (bridge). The word has been used for centuries to describe a narrow bridge made for people walking, as opposed to a bridge built for carts, carriages, or later, vehicles.