trace

English Online Dictionary. What means trace‎? What does trace mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹeɪs/, [tʃɹeɪs]
• Rhymes: -eɪs

Etymology 1

From Middle English trace, traas, from Old French trace (“an outline, track, trace”), from the verb (see below).

Noun

trace (plural traces)

1. An act of tracing.

2. An enquiry sent out for a missing article, such as a letter or an express package.
3. A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.

   Synonyms: track, trail

4. A residue of some substance or material.

5. A very small amount.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum
6. (electronics) A current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
7. An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
8. One of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whippletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug.
9. (engineering) A connecting bar or rod, pivoted at each end to the end of another piece, for transmitting motion, especially from one plane to another; specifically, such a piece in an organ stop action to transmit motion from the trundle to the lever actuating the stop slider.
10. (fortification) The ground plan of a work or works.
11. (geometry) The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
13. (mathematics) The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.
14. (grammar) An empty category occupying a position in the syntactic structure from which something has been moved, used to explain constructions such as wh-movement and the passive.
15. (programming) A sequence of instructions, including branches but not loops, that is executed for some input data.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English tracen, from Old French tracer, trasser (“to delineate, score, trace", also, "to follow, pursue”), probably a conflation of Vulgar Latin *tractiō (“to delineate, score, trace”), from Latin trahere (“to draw”); and Old French traquer (“to chase, hunt, pursue”), from trac (“a track, trace”), from Middle Dutch treck, treke (“a drawing, draft, delineation, feature, expedition”). More at track.

Verb

trace (third-person singular simple present traces, present participle tracing, simple past and past participle traced)

1. (transitive) To follow the trail of.
2. To follow the history of.
   • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth

     You may trace the deluge quite round the globe.
3. (transitive) To draw or sketch lightly or with care.

4. (transitive) To copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To copy; to imitate.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To walk; to go; to travel.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
8. (computing, transitive) To follow the execution of the program by making it to stop after every instruction, or by making it print a message after every step.

Related terms

• test and trace
• tracing
• track and trace
• trace down

Translations

Anagrams

• Carte, Cater, acter, caret, carte, cater, crate, creat, react, recta, reäct

French

Etymology

From the verb tracer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁas/
• Rhymes: -as

Noun

trace f (plural traces)

1. trace
2. track
3. (mathematics) trace

Derived terms

• trace de freinage

Verb

trace

1. inflection of tracer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “trace”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• caret, carte, créât, écart, terça

Galician

Verb

trace

1. inflection of trazar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtra.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -atʃe
• Hyphenation: trà‧ce

Etymology 1

From Latin thrācem, from Ancient Greek Θρᾷξ (Thrâix).

Adjective

trace (plural traci)

1. (literary) Thracian (of, from or relating to Thrace)

Noun

trace m or f by sense (plural traci)

1. (historical) Thracian (native or inhabitant of Thrace)

   Synonym: tracio

Noun

trace m (uncountable)

1. the Thracian language

Related terms

• tracio
• Tracia

Etymology 2

From Latin thraecem, from Ancient Greek Θρᾷξ (Thrâix).

Noun

trace m (plural traci)

1. (historical, Ancient Rome) a gladiator bearing Thracian equipment

Anagrams

• -crate, Creta, carte, certa, cetra, creta, tacer

Jamaican Creole

Noun

trace

1. Idle talk; bullshit.

Verb

trace

1. To talk or chat idly; to bullshit.

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French trace, from tracer, tracier.

Alternative forms

• traas, trase

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtraːs(ə)/

Noun

trace (plural traces) (mostly Late ME)

1. A trail, track or road; a pathway or route:
   1. An track that isn't demarcated; an informal pathway.
   2. A trace; a trail of evidence left of something's presence.
2. One's lifepath or decisions; one's chosen actions.
3. Stepping or movement of feet, especially during dancing.
4. (rare, heraldry) A straight mark.

Derived terms

• tracen
• tracyng

Descendants

• English: trace
• Scots: trace
• Yola: threesh, treesh

References

• “trāce, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-18.

Etymology 2

Verb

trace

1. Alternative form of tracen

Old French

Etymology

From the verb tracier, tracer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾat͡sə/

Noun

trace oblique singular, f (oblique plural traces, nominative singular trace, nominative plural traces)

1. trace (markings showing where one has been)

Descendants

• → Middle English: trace
  • English: trace
• French: trace

Portuguese

Verb

trace

1. inflection of traçar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

trace

1. inflection of trazar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative