alley

An alley is a narrow street or passageway between buildings, often found in older cities. Think of it like a tiny road that's usually not very long.

When people use the word "alley", they're usually talking about a specific way to get from one place to another in a city or neighborhood. For example, if you live on a street with big old houses, there might be an alley behind them where the trash cans are kept and sometimes people park their cars. You might hear someone say, "I need to take this package down the alley so I can put it in my car". They're just using the alley as a shortcut or a convenient place to store something temporarily. Sometimes alleys are also used for deliveries or maintenance work on buildings.