Highway Abbreviation: Hwy. and How to Use It

Which highway abbreviation should you use?

In a formal sentence, such as a news story or a report, many editors spell out the word: "The crash closed Highway 9 for two hours." Keep the short form for places where space is tight.

Writing highway on a mailing address

The postal service keeps a list of standard street suffix abbreviations, and it gives HWY for highway. Address lines on mail are best written in capitals without punctuation, which suits the machines that sort letters.

Other large road types have their own codes in the same list: FWY for freeway, EXPY for expressway, PKWY for parkway and TPKE for turnpike. The site's pages on the parkway abbreviation and the boulevard abbreviation cover two of the most common.

Reading road codes on signs and maps

US roads use letters before the number to show who runs the road and what kind it is:

• I: Interstate, the national system of divided freeways. Written I-80 or I 80.
• US: a US numbered route, marked with a white shield. Written US 30 or U.S. 30.
• SR: state route; some states write SH (state highway) or use the state's postal code, as in TX 71.
• CR: county road, common in rural areas.
• FM: farm to market road, a Texas road type.
• Rte.: route, a general short form for any numbered road.

Lanes have codes too. An HOV lane is a high occupancy vehicle lane, open to cars with more than one person.

Capitals, periods and plurals

• Capital H: capitalize Hwy. when it is part of a road's name, like Hwy. 1. Lowercase "highway" when it is a general word: "a busy highway."
• Period: add one in ordinary text (Hwy.), skip it on addresses and signs (HWY, Hwy).
• Plural: Hwys., or spell out "Highways 5 and 9."
• Number after: put the route number after the abbreviation, with a space: Hwy. 287.
• Direction words: keep N, S, E and W as the postal system asks on mail, as in N HWY 61.

Highway short forms in real sentences

• "Exit at Hwy. 20 and turn left at the gas station."
• "The farm stand is on Hwy 1, just past the mile marker."
• "Ship to: 880 US HWY 41."
• "Hwys. 6 and 24 share the road for 10 miles."
• "Traffic on I-35 is backed up to the county line."

For distances along the way, the miles abbreviation page explains mi. and how it appears on signs. More everyday short forms are in the common abbreviations list.

Hwy, Hy and other mixups

A few look-alikes cause confusion. Hy and Hgwy appear now and then but are not standard; stick with Hwy. or HWY. Fwy is not the same road type as a highway; a freeway is a fully controlled access road, while highway is a broader term that can include roads with stoplights and driveways. When an online form has a single street field, write the number and HWY, such as "HWY 52," rather than spelling out a long name.