Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <word-request><phrase-request>
Title: What is this type of road called in English?
Question: I’m looking for a word or a phrase for describing this kind of  road  which usually is constructed in the mountain areas, but not only:   image a representative sample from Google images, query = transfagarasan  In my language we call this  serpentine  a word used as a noun (not adjective) to describe its shape.  If I wanted to write an article about this road, a road constructed in the mountains provided with many turns and angles like in the above link, which word would be more appropriate to use?

Answers:
sents: text: Preface ADDED 14
text: Jan/Jan 14, 00:11
text: GMT/UTC:
text: This answer, as the OP Lucian Sava is well aware, has been written from an AmE perspective.
text: Actually, it is written from the perspective of the variety of AmE that I speak.
text: I think Lucian gets by now that English usage is not universal, as I had already indicted in my anwer.
text: Let the conversation continue, by all means!
text: Serpentine is fine, but in English I am pretty sure we would use it as an adjective describing the road.
text: Such a road is also called, in familiar terms, a curvy mountain road.
text: More technically, it is any road that contains many switchbacks or hairpin curves Switchback can refer to entirety of such a road.
text: But this may not reflect universal usage.
text: I think serpentine (adjective) would be the more universally recognized word.
text: You can do an image search for both "switchback road" and "serpentine road" and get many of the same images.
text: Thus saith the snake:
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/None/
score: 31
sents: text: Suitable words might be: winding or twisting
text: You could check the Thesaurus for more options.
text: These are very general adjectives and don't just apply to mountain passes (a pass is a road that crosses a mountain, but it does not have to be winding).
text: Note that there is a pass over the Pennines called Snake Pass , but that is its name.
text: You could use Serpentine but that is rather poetic sounding.
text: The type of turn that loops back on itself is known as a hairpin turn .
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15464/rghome
score: 13
sents: text: In the U.S., we call those mountainous roads "switchback" roads, with the individual turns called "hairpin" turns. https://www.google.com/search?q=switchback+road&espv=2&biw=1147&bih=685&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=qUy0VKO3KtWxogSMpYDIBw&ved=0CB0QsAQ&dpr=0.9
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15493/Lance Ike
score: 10
sents: text: I often refer such paths/roads as .. zig zag roads or paths Searching this on Google Images supports this word.
text: In my state, we have such place called Saputara .
text: It's famous for its hairpin curves or zigzag roads.
text: Most of the tourists experience motion sickness due to this.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/3187/Maulik V
score: 7
sents: text: I think serpentine road or winding road is as close as you're likely to get.
text: Personally, I prefer serpentine road .
text: To my knowledge there isn't a single-word noun form of this phrase that is generally understood.
text: Another user mentioned switchback , but that strikes me as less likely to be widely understood.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15496/Paul Senzee
score: 4
sents: text: In england we do not speak of serpentine roads and a swichback (n) is not a road and a switchback (adj) road is not a bendy one.
text: We are notorious for winding roads but these are not necessarily winding to ascend a hill or mountain.
text: Meandering is more often applied to a river than a road and would not describe a bendy climbing road.
text: We speak of hairpin BENDS rather than curves or corners.
text: I do not think there is in British English a particular noun or adjective pertaining particularly to roads made with bends to reduce the gradient on a hill.
text: This may be due to lack of mountains and hence such roads in england; there may be Welsh or Scottish words for such.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15525/user15525
score: 3
sents: text: Instead of a 'road' you could instead call it a 'track.'
text: 'Track' refers to it being a dirt, rather than sealed, road.
text: So 'winding track' rather than 'winding road,' for example. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/track
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/2598/Tamsyn Michael
score: 1
sents: text: This would be a road containing many s-bends or hair-pin corners.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15478/Tom Bandy
score: 0
sents: text: The word that you are looking for is " meandering ".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/15484/GatesReign
score: 0
sents: text: It is called a mountain pass .
text: You can definitely use words like "serpentine", "sinuous", "winding" and so on to describe such a road but they're just appropriate adjectives.
text: To give an analogy, answering the question "What is this type of road called?"
text: with "a serpentine road" is a bit like answering "What is this this type of animal called?"
text: with "a huge animal" rather than "an elephant".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/4468/David Richerby
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
Suitable adjectives would include meandering, serpentine, sinuous, winding, twisting, zig-zag. However, serpentine would be the more universally recognized word.
Meandering, serpentine, zig zag, twisting, winding are all options.