Barrier: What Stands in the Way, Physical or Not
A barrier is anything that blocks movement or progress. It covers crash barriers on a road as easily as language barriers between people.
A barrier stops things getting through. Some barriers are built on purpose, like a ticket barrier or a flood barrier. Others are named after the fact, when someone notices that progress has stopped. A language barrier was never constructed by anybody; it is simply where two people run out of shared words.
- A physical obstruction. *Crash barriers line the motorway.*
- Something preventing progress. *Cost is the main barrier to treatment.*
- A boundary between groups. *Barriers of class and language.*
- A threshold once thought unbreakable. *The four-minute barrier.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | barrier | A safety barrier. |
| Plural | barriers | Barriers to entry. |
| Related verb | bar | The road was barred. |
| Related | barricade | They built a barricade. |
| Adjective | barrier-free | A barrier-free entrance. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The reef acts as a natural barrier against storms.Barrier against — protection from something.
- Language is often the first barrier to integration.Barrier to — the thing being prevented.
- She broke through the barrier in her second season.Break through is the standard verb for records.
Barrier, obstacle, hurdle and blockade
- Barrier — stands across the way, may be permanent
- Obstacle — anything in the path, often incidental
- Hurdle — a difficulty you clear rather than remove
- Blockade — deliberately imposed to cut off supply or access
From Old French *barriere*, from *barre*, a bar. The Great Barrier Reef, the sound barrier and barrier methods in medicine all inherit the same simple picture: a bar laid across a way through.
Barrier to or barrier for?
Use *to* before the thing being blocked: *a barrier to growth*. *For* is not idiomatic here.
What are barriers to entry?
An economics term for whatever makes it hard for a new company to join a market — cost, regulation, or an established rival.