Abroad means in or to another country. A summer spent abroad, a parcel posted abroad, a friend who rings from abroad at strange hours.
It is an adverb, and that is where learners come unstuck: you go abroad, live abroad, work abroad — never go to abroad, and never the abroad. There is no plural and no article on it, ever. It sits after the verb or at the end of the sentence: he has been abroad twice this year. From abroad marks a source — news from abroad, students from abroad. British speakers use it constantly, while Americans reach for overseas or 'out of the country', and abroad sounds a little formal to them. In older books you meet the wider sense, out in the open and moving around: there was a rumour abroad.
1adverbabroadIn or to a country that is not your own.
“They lived abroad for six years before coming home.”
2adverbopenOut in the open, or spreading among people — an older use kept alive in books.
“A strange story was abroad in the village that winter.”
Also accepted in games: overseas
Abroad was built in Middle English out of a- (on, in) and brood, the old spelling of broad — literally 'on the broad', out in the wide open. Its first meaning was scattered widely, with no foreign country in sight; a thing abroad was simply spread out. The wide open then shrank to one particular width: the far side of the sea.
Middle English
abrood — broadly widely scattered
English, today
abroad
Built from
First attested in mid 13th century. From Middle English abrood (“broadly widely scattered”), from a- (“on, in”) + brood (“broad”). Equivalent to a + broad.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Travel & Transport, Directions & Position