Skip to content

rail

rail

noun rye Rare

Also means

track

Usage Note

Rail refers to the metal bar forming a railway track, and by extension to rail transport in general (le transport ferroviaire par rail). The plural rails is common when describing a stretch of track. The idiom sortir des rails means to go off the rails, used both literally and figuratively.

Examples

"Le train déraille et quitte les rails."

Natural Translation

The train derails and leaves the tracks.

Free starter pack

Building your French vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common French words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore French by topic