# journey

/ˈdʒɝni/ (US) · /dʒˈɜːni/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/journey
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. travelling to a place

noun · CEFR A2

the act of travelling from one place to another, especially when it takes a long time.

For teachers: an act of travelling from one point to another, typically implying a significant distance or duration.

- The journey from London to Edinburgh takes about four and a half hours by train.
- After a grueling three-day journey across the mountain pass, the weary explorers finally reached the coastal outpost.

Usage: Often used with the preposition 'to' for the destination and 'from' for the origin.

Teaching tip: Learners often confuse 'journey' (the travel itself) with 'travel' (the general activity) or 'trip' (the whole visit including the stay).

### 2. personal development

noun · CEFR B1

a process of changing or learning over a long period of time.

For teachers: a metaphorical progression or series of stages in a person's life, career, or emotional development.

- The book describes the author's spiritual journey after he moved to India.
- The CEO spoke at length about the company's journey from a small garage startup to a global leader in renewable energy.

Teaching tip: This sense is extremely common in modern media, especially in reality TV and corporate storytelling.

### 3. customer experience

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic · Technical

the series of steps a customer takes when using a website or buying a product.

For teachers: the complete sum of experiences and interactions a customer has with a brand or system.

- We need to simplify the customer journey on our website to increase sales.
- Mapping the user journey allowed the developers to identify exactly where potential subscribers were abandoning the registration process.

Usage: Commonly appears in the compound 'customer journey'.

### 4. to travel

verb · CEFR B2 · Literary

to travel a long distance.

For teachers: to undertake a journey; to travel over a significant distance.

- They journeyed through the desert for weeks before finding an oasis.
- The pilgrims journeyed southward, stopping at various shrines to pay their respects before reaching the holy city.

Usage: Intransitive verb; usually followed by a prepositional phrase of direction.

Teaching tip: As a verb, this is much less common than 'travel' and sounds quite formal or poetic.

## Examples

- The journey to the city takes two hours by train.
- We planned our journey carefully to ensure we arrived at the conference before the keynote speaker began.
- While the destination provided the initial motivation, the arduous journey across the mountain range ultimately proved to be the most transformative experience for the entire expedition team.

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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.