significant inroad
1
6.1
- noun
- /sɪɡˈnɪfɪkənt ˈɪnroʊd/
:
avance significativo
- In recent years, researchers have made significant inroads in understanding the effects of climate change on marine life.
- make significant inroads
Examples
-
Certainly, the Jesuits made significant inroads in their conversion of Indian people to Catholicism, especially during the most severe of the epidemic years.
Academic text (1992) -
For China, the Latin American culture was unfamiliar, and the region was very much within the U.S. sphere of influence; it was difficult for China to make significant inroads into a region governed by conservative or reactionary governments.
Academic text (1997) -
Since taking the position in 2012, Mr. Sarma and his office have made significant inroads.
Academic text (2016) -
First, there is little doubt that neoliberalism has made significant inroads within the Brazilian political class over the past decade.
Academic text (1998) -
In the election, however, the ANC failed to make any significant inroads into racial minority communities.
Academic text (1997) -
The most significant inroads have occurred in the sale of rice, that most symbolic of commodities to Japan.
Academic text (1996) -
None of the reforms of the last thirty years have made any significant inroads into history's hold over the curriculum.
Academic text (1990) -
I hope that Jim's article and the Community Care campaign will help raise this issue again and inspire some political will to make significant inroads into the problem.
Academic text (2011) -
Significant inroads were made in data integration by incorporating human resource, accounting, and administrative data into the same data warehouse, with input coming directly from employees and managers.
Academic text (1996) -
This would mean strengthening Colombian security forces—the military and police—and extending their presence in areas from which they had been absent, and into which lawless actors had made significant inroads.
Academic text (2004)
Synonyms
242
3.9
A sudden important discovery or advance that solves a big problem
103
3.2
An important event that shows progress in a person's life or project
49
4.1
Important progress toward a goal
24
7.2
Progress that slowly takes away customers or sales, like a new product entering a market
16
4.4
An important event that marks a big change in history or progress
8
5.5
A sudden big change that makes something much better
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a major advance or substantial progress' is directly derivable from combining 'significant' (important/large enough to have effect) with 'inroad' (a penetration or gain into a market or area). This adjective + noun composition follows straightforward compositional semantics and parallels common cross‑linguistic patterns (e.g. 'make inroads'), so a learner who knows both constituents would grasp the phrase.
Etymology
Significant inroad comes from the old image of soldiers making a way into enemy land, where the noun inroad meant a push into new ground. That's why a significant inroad now means a 'major advance' or big progress into an area.