Other forms: embankments
An embankment is a long bank of earth or stone built to carry a road or railway, or to hold back a river. The railway embankment, the Thames Embankment, the car left the road and went down the embankment.
The two jobs are different and worth separating. A transport embankment raises a route above the surrounding ground so it stays level; a flood embankment keeps water where it belongs and is also called a levee or a dyke. In London, the Embankment with a capital letter is a specific riverside road and an Underground station, which is why the word is more familiar to visitors than its meaning is.
1nounrailA raised bank of earth carrying a road or railway.
“Sheep were grazing on the embankment beside the line.”
2nounembankmentA raised bank built to hold back a river.
“The embankment was raised by a metre after the floods.”
From embank + -ment.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in In the City