# barrier
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English barryer, barrere, barryȝer, from Old French barriere (compare French barrière), from Old French barre (“bar”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈbæɹi.ə(ɹ)/
* (US, without the Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA: /ˈbæɹi.ɚ/
* (US, Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA: /ˈbɛɹi.ɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -æɹiə(ɹ)

### Noun

barrier (plural barriers)
* A structure that bars passage.
    The bus went through a railway barrier and was hit by a train.
    The bomber had passed through one checkpoint before blowing himself up at a second barrier.
* An obstacle or impediment.
    Even a small fee can be a barrier for some students.
** 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
* A boundary or limit.
    Few marathon runners break the three-hour time barrier.
* (grammar) A node (in government and binding theory) said to intervene between other nodes A and B if it is a potential governor for B, c-commands B, and does not c-command A.
* (physiology) A separation between two areas of the body where specialized cells allow the entry of certain substances but prevent the entry of others.
* (historical) The lists in a tournament.
* (historical, in the plural) A martial exercise of the 15th and 16th centuries.

#### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:hindrance

#### Derived terms

* acoustic barrier
* allobarrier
* automatic half-barrier level crossing
* barrier board
* barrier cream
* barrier island
* barrierless
* barrierlike
* barrier method
* barrier nursing
* barrier reef
* barrier ridge
* barrier rogue
* barrier to entry
* barrier to trade
* barrier troops
* barristor
* biobarrier
* blood-brain barrier
* boom barrier
* color barrier
* Coulomb barrier
* crash barrier
* crowd control barrier
* crush barrier
* cyberbarrier
* death barrier
* diffusion-barrier
* Einstein barrier
* Great Barrier Island
* Great Barrier Reef
* half-barrier
* heat barrier
* hematoencephalic barrier
* ice barrier
* immunobarrier
* jersey barrier
* Jersey barrier
* language barrier
* light barrier
* memory barrier
* metabarrier
* multibarrier
* nanobarrier
* New Jersey barrier
* noise barrier
* non-tariff barrier
* police barrier
* racial barrier
* Schottky barrier
* security barrier
* sonic barrier
* sound barrier
* species barrier
* subbarrier
* superbarrier
* tariff barrier
* ticket barrier
* tilt barrier
* time barrier
* tire barrier, tyre barrier
* toll barrier
* trade barrier
* traffic barrier
* underbarrier

#### Translations

Afrikaans: versperring
Arabic: حَاجِز m (ḥājiz)
Armenian: պատնեշ (hy) (patneš)
Belarusian: бар'ер m (barʺjer), шлагба́ум m (šlahbáum) (on level crossings)
Bulgarian: барие́ра (bg) f (bariéra)
Catalan: barrera (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 障 (zh) (zhàng), 柵欄 / 栅栏 (zh) (zhàlán)
Czech: bariéra (cs) f
Danish: barriere c, afspærring c
Dutch: barrière (nl) c, versperring (nl) f, slagboom (nl) m
Egyptian: (sbḫt f)
Esperanto: barilo (eo)
Estonian: barjäär, (on level crossings) tõkkepuu
Finnish: aita (fi), este (fi)
French: barrière (fr) f
Galician: barreira (gl) f
Georgian: ბარიერი (barieri)
German: Sperre (de) f, Schranke (de) f, (on level crossings) Schlagbaum (de) m, Barriere (de) f, Absperrung (de) f
Greek: φράγμα (el) n (frágma)
Hebrew: מַחְסוֹם (he) m (makhsóm)
Hungarian: sorompó (hu), csapórúd
Ido: barilo (io)
Irish: fál m
Italian: barriera (it) f
Japanese: 障壁 (ja) (しょうへき, shōheki)
Korean: 장벽(障壁) (ko) (jangbyeok)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: berbest (ku)
Macedonian: барие́ра f (bariéra)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: sperring m or f, bom (no) m (level crossing)
Nynorsk: sperring f, bom m (level crossing)
Polish: bariera (pl) f, barierka (pl) f
Portuguese: barreira (pt) f
Romanian: barieră (ro) f
Russian: барье́р (ru) m (barʹjér), (on level crossings) шлагба́ум (ru) m (šlagbáum)
Scottish Gaelic: (on level crossings) bacadh m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: барије́ра f
Roman: barijéra (sh) f
Spanish: barrera (es) f
Swahili: kizuizi (sw)
Swedish: bom (sv) c, barriär (sv) c, spärr (sv) c
Tarifit: afray m
Ukrainian: бар'є́р (uk) m (barʺjér), шлагба́ум m (šlahbáum) (on level crossings)
Walloon: bårire (wa) f, håjhe (wa) f, håjhea (wa) m :

### Verb

barrier (third-person singular simple present barriers, present participle barriering, simple past and past participle barriered)
* (transitive) To block or obstruct with a barrier.
    Synonym: bar