royal road
- noun
- Informal
:
camino real
- Unfortunately, there is no royal road to mastering a new language.
Examples
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There is no royal road to success!
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Finding a royal road to happiness is essential.
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Business leaders often wish for a royal road to innovation, but breakthroughs take time and risk.
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Many students look for a royal road to academic success, but consistent effort is usually required.
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School improvement is often regarded as the royal road to achieving educational success for all students.
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Many believe that dedication and hard work are the royal road to reaching one's dreams.
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Investing in good health can be seen as a royal road to happiness and longevity.
Synonyms
5
2.0
The quickest or easiest way to travel from one place to another
1
6.1
A planned smooth path to reach a goal
1
3.6
A way to reach success in work or goals
How Easy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partly compositional: 'royal' suggests privileged or special and 'road' denotes a path, so a learner could infer a meaning like a special or privileged path. However, the conventional sense 'an easy or assured path to success' is metaphorical and tied to a proverbial usage (e.g., 'there is no royal road to...'), so the precise connotation is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Royal road comes from very old roads built for kings and their messengers, where the royal road was fast and protected so travelers could reach their goal quickly. So today people use royal road to mean an 'easy' or 'sure' path to success.