pile-up

Examples

• All

• A motorway pile-up, it's terrible.

  Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004)

• Cars screech together in a huge pile-up.

  Fiction book (1998)

• There was a car pile up.

  Wonderland (2003)

• Six car pile-up, 11 injuries, four went over to county and six are coming here.

  Dragonfly (2002)

• - There was a car pile up on the 118.

  Wonderland (2003)

• Three car pile-up.

  The Santa Clause (1994)

• Jessica turned on the radio to keep her mind busy while she waited behind a six-car pile-up that would make her late for work once more.

  Fiction book (1995)

• The I-95 has been completely shut down due to a weather-related six-car pile up at exit 15, southbound.

  Christmas Miracle (2012)

• At least one person was killed and an undetermined number injured in Thanksgiving Day pile-ups involving an estimated 100 cars on a foggy stretch of highway in southeast Texas, authorities said.

  Blog text (27)

• The morning rush hour caused a massive pile-up on the highway, involving over twenty cars.

Synonyms

C

crash

vspile-up

∞ 2.3

A violent collision of vehicles like cars or planes that causes damage

is limited to road incidents where several vehicles collide together

W

wreck

vspile-up

105 2.7

A serious accident involving vehicles like cars

is narrower, referring specifically to crashes that involve multiple vehicles on roads

C

car crash

vspile-up

72 1.3

A collision between cars that causes damage or injury

specifies incidents where several vehicles are involved rather than any car collision

P

pileup

vspile-up

4 4.1

A road crash where several vehicles hit each other in a chain

has identical meaning but is written with a hyphen instead

C

car pile-up

vspile-up

2 3.7

A road accident where several cars crash into each other, often after one car hits another

is the same idea but without stressing high speed or chain reaction

S

smash-up

vspile-up

• UK

1 5.8

A serious road crash where vehicles hit each other hard

focuses instead on accidents that involve many vehicles rather than violence level

S

smashup

vspile-up

• UK

4.4

A violent crash of vehicles that causes damage

highlights multiple-vehicle incidents rather than the sheer violence of impact

How Severe

pile-up

3 3.2

collision

148 3.8

fender-bender

• Informal

18 3.2

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology