# as the crow flies

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/as-the-crow-flies
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

In a straight line distance between two locations, as opposed to the road distance or over land distance.

## Examples

- It's ten miles as the crow flies, but fifteen by road.
- Our houses are only two blocks apart as the crow flies.
- The village is only five kilometres as the crow flies, but the mountain road takes an hour to drive.
- The hotel is quite close as the crow flies, but you have to take a long ferry ride to reach the island where it is located.
- The park entrance is less than a mile away as the crow flies, but the tall fence forces us to walk all the way around the neighborhood.
- Though the two cities were barely a hundred miles apart as the crow flies, the winding coastal route consumed the better part of a day.

## Origin

Derived from the observation that when a crow flies toward a food source, it maintains a direct path that ignores the inconveniences of terrestrial geography. While a human traveller is obliged to navigate around rivers and uneven terrain, the bird simply clears them. The idiom codifies this disregard for obstacles, noting the shorter distance of a straight line over the necessary detours of a ground-level route.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.