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What does “pályaudvar” mean in Hungarian?

A pályaudvar is a railway station: pálya (“track, course”) plus udvar (“courtyard”). Hungarian names its transport hubs by describing them — a repülőtér is a “flying-field” (airport), a buszpályaudvar a bus station, and a smaller stop is an állomás or a megálló. Budapest’s two great termini, Keleti and Nyugati, are both pályaudvar: Eastern and Western.

Pálya on its own covers a lot of ground — a sports pitch (futballpálya), a career (pályafutás), an orbit. Note also the case a station takes: Hungarian says a pályaudvarra megyek (“I go to the station”) and a pályaudvaron várok (“I wait at the station”), using the “on” endings rather than the “in” ones, a choice you end up learning place by place.