highway vs motorway

highway

noun
  • A main public road, especially a multi-lane, high-speed thoroughfare. 

  • A way; a path that leads to a certain destiny 

  • A road that is higher than the surrounding land and has drainage ditches at the sides 

  • Any public road for vehicular traffic. 

  • Synonym of bus (“common connection for two or more circuits or components”) 

verb
  • To travel on a highway 

motorway

noun
  • A highway with grade-separated crossings (rather than level crossings) and designed (and only permitted) for high-speed motor-traffic (in Europe motor vehicles with a higher speed limit than 40 km/h) running in two directions on one separate carriageway each 

  • A racetrack venue designated especially for the sport of auto racing. 

How often have the words highway and motorway occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )