Block vs. Street — What's the Difference?

An area of land enclosed by streets, forming a neighborhood unit.

A public road in a city, town, or village, often paved and lined with buildings.

Used in city planning and real estate to designate specific areas.

Serves as a pathway for vehicles and pedestrians, connecting different parts of a city.

Can vary significantly based on the city's layout and design.

Can range from wide avenues to narrow alleys.

Encloses residential, commercial, and public buildings.

Often a hub for social, cultural, and economic activities.

Often used to give directions or estimate walking distance.

Streets often bear names that reflect local history or geographical features.

A solid piece of a hard substance, such as wood, having one or more flat sides.

A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about.

Such a piece used as a construction member or as a support.

A public road in a city, town, or village, typically with houses and buildings on one or both sides

Such a piece upon which chopping or cutting is done

Relating to the outlook, values, or lifestyle of those young people who are perceived as composing a fashionable urban subculture

Such a piece upon which persons are beheaded.

Abbr. St. A public way or thoroughfare in a city or town, usually with a sidewalk or sidewalks.

One of a set of small wooden or plastic pieces, such as a cube, bar, or cylinder, used as a building toy.

Such a public way considered apart from the sidewalks

(Printing) A large amount of text.

A public way or road along with the houses or buildings abutting it

(Sports) A starting block.

The people living, working, or habitually gathering in or along a street

A stand from which articles are displayed and sold at an auction

Street A district, such as Wall Street in New York City, that is identified with a specific profession. Often used with the.

A mold or form on which an item is shaped or displayed

The streets of a city viewed as the scene of crime, poverty, or dereliction.

A substance, such as wood or stone, that has been prepared for engraving.

The common public viewed as a repository of public attitudes and understanding.

A pulley or a system of pulleys set in a casing.

Near or giving passage to a street

An engine block.

Taking place in the street

A bloc.

Living or making a living on the streets

A set of like items, such as shares of stock, sold or handled as a unit.

Performing on the street

A group of four or more unseparated postage stamps forming a rectangle.

Crude; vulgar

(Canadian) A group of townships in an unsurveyed area.

Appropriate for wear or use in public

A usually rectangular section of a city or town bounded on each side by consecutive streets.

A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.

A segment of a street bounded by consecutive cross streets and including its buildings and inhabitants.

A road as above, but including the sidewalks (pavements) and buildings.

A large building divided into separate units, such as apartments.

The roads that run perpendicular to avenues in a grid layout.

A length of railroad track controlled by signals.

The people who live in such a road, as a neighborhood.

Something that obstructs; an obstacle

The people who spend a great deal of time on the street in urban areas, especially, the young, the poor, the unemployed, and those engaged in illegal activities.

(Sports) An act of bodily obstruction, as of a player or the ball.

An illicit or contraband source, especially of drugs.

(Football) An act of legally using one's body to obstruct or move a defensive player so that a player in possession of the ball may advance downfield, pass, or otherwise execute an offensive play.

(finance) Wall Street.

(Medicine) Interruption or obstruction of a physiological function

(attributive) Living in the streets.

(Psychology) A sudden cessation of speech or a thought process without an immediate observable cause, sometimes considered a consequence of repression. Also called mental block.

Streetwise slang.

(Slang) The human head

(figuratively) A great distance.

To stop or impede the passage of or movement through; obstruct

(poker slang) Each of the three opportunities that players have to bet, after the flop, turn and river.

To prevent from happening, succeeding, or progressing

A style of skateboarding featuring typically urban obstacles.

To shut out from view

(slang) Having street cred; conforming to modern urban trends.

To stop the passage of (a motion or bill) in a legislative assembly.

To build or equip with streets.

(Sports) To prevent or slow the movement of (an opponent) by using one's body, as by making a block in football.

To eject; to throw onto the streets.

(Sports) To stop or deflect (a ball or puck) by using one's body.

To heavily defeat.

(Medicine) To interrupt or obstruct the functioning of (a physiological process), especially by the use of drugs.

To go on sale.

(Psychology) To fail to remember.

To proselytize in public.

To support, strengthen, or retain in place by means of a block.

Originally, a paved way or road; a public highway; now commonly, a thoroughfare in a city or village, bordered by dwellings or business houses.

To shape, mold, or form with or on a block

The roadway of a street{1}, as distinguished from the sidewalk; as, children playing in the street.

To indicate broadly without great detail; sketch. Often used with out

The inhabitants of a particular street; as, the whole street knew about their impending divorce.

To run (trains) on a block system.

A thoroughfare (usually including sidewalks) that is lined with buildings;

To obstruct the movement of an opponent by using one's body.

The part of a thoroughfare between the sidewalks; the part of the thoroughfare on which vehicles travel;

To stop or deflect a ball or puck by using one's body.

The streets of a city viewed as a depressed environment in which there is poverty and crime and prostitution and dereliction;

To suffer a mental block. Often used with on

A situation offering opportunities;

A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

People living or working on the same street;

A chopping block: a cuboid base for cutting or beheading.

A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.

A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.

A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.

A case or frame housing one or more sheaves (pulleys), used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example as part of lifting gear or a sailing ship's rigging. See also block and tackle.

A section of split logs used as fuel.

A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end, forming a cuboid shape.

(falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.

A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.

(philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.

(viticulture) A discrete group of vines in a vineyard, often distinguished from others by variety, clone, canopy training method, irrigation infrastructure, or some combination thereof.

A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

(computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).

(programming) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.

(cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.

(chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.

(rail) A section of a railroad where the block system is used.

(computing) A contiguous range of Unicode code points used to encode characters of a specific type; can be of any size evenly divisible by 16, up to 65,536 (a full plane).

A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.

The distance from one street to another in a city or suburb that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.

A roughly cuboid building.

A cellblock.

Something that prevents something from passing.

Interference or obstruction of cognitive processes.

(sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).

A temporary or permanent ban that prevents access to an online account or service, or connection to or from a designated telephone number, IP address, or similar.

(slang) The human head.

(UK) Solitary confinement.

(obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

(transitive) To fill or obstruct (something) so that it is not possible to pass.

(transitive) To prevent (something or someone) from passing.

(transitive) To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).

To impede (an opponent or opponent's play).

To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).

To hit with a block.

To play a block shot.

(transitive) To bar (someone undesirable) from connecting via telephone, instant messaging, etc., or from accessing an online account or service, or similar.

(transitive) To bar (a message or communication), or bar connection with (an online account or service, a designated telephone number, IP address, etc.).

To wait for some condition to become true.

(transitive) To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.

(transitive) To shape or sketch out roughly.

To knock (a person's hat) down over their eyes.

A piece of wood more or less bulky; a solid mass of wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more plane, or approximately plane, faces; as, a block on which a butcher chops his meat; a block by which to mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc.

The solid piece of wood on which condemned persons lay their necks when they are beheaded.

The wooden mold on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.

A large or long building divided into separate houses or shops, or a number of houses or shops built in contact with each other so as to form one building; a row of houses or shops.

A square, or portion of a city inclosed by streets, whether occupied by buildings or not.

A grooved pulley or sheave incased in a frame or shell which is provided with a hook, eye, or strap, by which it may be attached to an object. It is used to change the direction of motion, as in raising a heavy object that can not be conveniently reached, and also, when two or more such sheaves are compounded, to change the rate of motion, or to exert increased force; - used especially in the rigging of ships, and in tackles.

The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.

Any obstruction, or cause of obstruction; a stop; a hindrance; an obstacle; - also called blockage; as, a block in the way; a block in an artery; a block in a nerve; a block in a biochemical pathway.

A piece of box or other wood for engravers' work.

A piece of hard wood (as mahogany or cherry) on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted to make it type high.

A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

A section of a railroad where the block system is used. See Block system, below.

In Australia, one of the large lots into which public land, when opened to settlers, is divided by the government surveyors.

The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket.

A number of individual items sold as a unit; as, a block of airline ticketes; a block of hotel rooms; a block of stock.

The length of one side of a city block{5}, traversed along any side; as, to walk three blocks ahead and turn left at the corner.

A halt in a mental process, especially one due to stress, memory lapse, confusion, etc.; as, a writer's block; to have a block in remembering a name.

A quantity of binary-encoded information transferred, or stored, as a unit to, from, or on a data storage device; as, to divide a disk into 512-byte blocks.

A number of locations in a random-access memory allocated to storage of specific data; as, to allocate a block of 1024 bytes for the stack.

To obstruct so as to prevent passage or progress; to prevent passage from, through, or into, by obstructing the way; - used both of persons and things; - often followed by up; as, to block up a road or harbor; to block an entrance.

To secure or support by means of blocks; to secure, as two boards at their angles of intersection, by pieces of wood glued to each.

To shape on, or stamp with, a block; as, to block a hat.

To cause (any activity) to halt by creating an obstruction; as, to block a nerve impulse; to block a biochemical reaction with a drug.

A solid piece of something (usually having flat rectangular sides);

A rectangular area in a city surrounded by streets and usually containing several buildings;

A three-dimensional shape with six square or rectangular sides

A number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit;

Housing in a large building that is divided into separate units;

(computer science) a sector or group of sectors that function as the smallest data unit permitted;

An inability to remember or think of something you normally can do; often caused by emotional tension;

A simple machine consisting of a wheel with a groove in which a rope can run to change the direction or point of application of a force applied to the rope

A metal casting containing the cylinders and cooling ducts of an engine;

An obstruction in a pipe or tube;

A platform from which an auctioneer sells;

(American football) the act of obstructing someone's path with your body;

Render unsuitable for passage;

Hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of;

Stop from happening or developing;

Interfere with or prevent the reception of signals;

Run on a block system;

Interrupt the normal function of by means of anesthesia;

Shut out from view or get in the way so as to hide from sight;

Stamp or emboss a title or design on a book with a block;

Obstruct;

Block passage through;

Support, secure, or raise with a block;

Impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball);

Be unable to remember;

Shape by using a block;

Shape into a block or blocks;

Prohibit the conversion or use of (assets);

A block is defined as a parcel of land enclosed by streets, serving as a basic unit of urban space.

Streets form the boundaries of blocks and provide access and connectivity, while blocks organize living, commercial, and recreational spaces.

Yes, streets typically border multiple blocks, forming their perimeters.

Streets are often named after local figures, historical events, geographical features, or flora, contributing to the area's identity.

Larger blocks can house more facilities and offer more space, but might reduce walkability compared to smaller, more compact blocks.

Street vendors contribute to the vibrant street life and economy, offering a variety of goods and services.

Yes, streets can range from single-lane roads to multi-lane thoroughfares, depending on their intended use and location.

Streets are crucial for movement, access, and the hosting of social and economic activities, forming the backbone of urban life.

Yes, the design and arrangement of blocks and streets significantly influence traffic patterns and urban mobility.

The architecture, layout, and use of blocks contribute to the distinct feel and identity of city neighborhoods.

Streets are venues for public gatherings, markets, and festivals, playing a vital role in community engagement and cultural expression.

Redevelopment can transform the function and appearance of a block, potentially affecting local communities and economies.

Most streets in cities and towns are paved, but there can be unpaved streets in less developed or rural areas.

Pedestrians navigate through sidewalks, crossings, and pathways, relying on the layout of blocks and streets for access and direction.

Urban streets are often busier and more structured within a grid or network, whereas rural streets might be less formal and less crowded.