The first part of the WAY headword gives 16 translation equivalents of Chinese words meaning "way". This illustrates how one single English headword can have ten or more Chinese translation equivalents, which Medhurst ascribes to either "the richness of the Chinese language, in certain particulars", or to "the inability of the compiler (from want of time and skill) to discover the slight shades of meaning that exist among them". Most of these equivalents are common terms, such as 道 taóu (dào "way; road; path), 路 loó (lù "road; path; way"), and 途 t'hoô (tú "road; route; way"), but some are obscure classical Chinese terms, such as dǐgé 坻閣, which the Kangxi zidian (s.v., 閣) notes was the name of a road mentioned in commentaries to the Rites of Zhou (野廬氏). The second part of the WAY headword gives translations of 11 usage examples, for instance, "public way, 大路 tá loó , 官路 kwan loó" (dàlù "big street; main road; highway" and guānlù "government-financed road; public road", respectively).
