Main Difference
The main difference between Street and Alley is that the Street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment and Alley is a narrow street.
Street
A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable surface such as tarmac, concrete, cobblestone or brick. Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt, embedded with rails, or otherwise prepared to accommodate non-pedestrian traffic.
Originally, the word street simply meant a paved road (Latin: via strata). The word street is still sometimes used colloquially as a synonym for road, for example in connection with the ancient Watling Street, but city residents and urban planners draw a crucial modern distinction: a road’s main function is transportation, while streets facilitate public interaction. Examples of streets include pedestrian streets, alleys, and city-centre streets too crowded for road vehicles to pass. Conversely, highways and motorways are types of roads, but few would refer to them as streets.
Alley
An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane), or a path or walk in a park or garden.A covered alley or passageway, often with shops, may be called an arcade. The origin of the word alley is late Middle English, from Old French: alee “walking or passage”, from aler “go”, from Latin: ambulare “to walk”.
Street (noun)
A paved part of road, usually in a village or a town.
“Walk down the street.”
Street (noun)
A road as above but including the sidewalks (pavements) and buildings.
“I live on the street down from Joyce Avenue.”
Street (noun)
The people who live in such a road, as a neighborhood.
Street (noun)
The people who spend a great deal of time on the street in urban areas, especially, the young, the poor, the unemployed, and those engaged in illegal activities.
Street (noun)
Street talk or slang.
Street (noun)
A great distance.
“He’s streets ahead of his sister in all the subjects in school.”
Street (noun)
Each of the three opportunities that players have to bet, after the flop, turn and river.
Street (noun)
Illicit, contraband, especially of a drug
“I got some pot cheap on the street.”
Street (noun)
Living in the streets.
“Street cat.”
“Street urchin.”
Street (noun)
By restriction, the streets that run perpendicular to avenues.
Street (adjective)
Having street cred; conforming to modern urban trends.
Street (verb)
To build or equip with streets.
Street (verb)
To eject; to throw onto the streets.
Street (verb)
To heavily defeat.
Street (verb)
To go on sale.
Street (verb)
To proselytize in public.
Alley (noun)
A narrow street or passageway, especially one through the middle of a block giving access to the rear of lots or buildings.
“The parking lot to my friend’s apartment building is in the alley.”
Alley (noun)
The area between the outfielders.
“He hit one deep into the alley.”
Alley (noun)
An establishment where bowling is played.
Alley (noun)
The extra area between the sidelines or tramlines on a tennis court that is used for doubles matches.
Alley (noun)
A walk or passage in a garden or park, bordered by rows of trees or bushes.
Alley (noun)
A passageway between rows of pews in a church.
Alley (noun)
Any passage having the entrance represented as wider than the exit, so as to give the appearance of length.
Alley (noun)
The space between two rows of compositors’ stands in a printing office.
Alley (noun)
A glass marble or taw.
Street (noun)
a public road in a city, town, or village, typically with houses and buildings on one or both sides
“45 Lake Street”
“the narrow, winding streets of Edinburgh”
Street (noun)
Wall Street.
Street (noun)
the roads or public areas of a city or town
“every week, fans stop me in the street”
Street (noun)
denoting someone who is homeless
“the street kids of the city”
Street (noun)
relating to the outlook, values, or lifestyle of those young people who are perceived as composing a fashionable urban subculture
“London street style”