traffic
/ˈtɹæfɪk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.85 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
Uncountable
noun
The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
Uncountable
noun
The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The traffic is slow during rush hour."
- "VVhoſe miſaduentures, piteous ouerthrovves, / (Through the continuing of their Fathers ſtrife, / And death-markt paſſage of their Parents rage) / Is novv the tvvo hovvres traffique of our Stage."
- "I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians)."
- "To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic (and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish"
- "Its units of study are regions or oceans, long-distance trades [...], the traffic of cults and beliefs between cultures and continents."
- "Sales are down due to a decline in store traffic."
Etymology
From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *trānsfrīcāre (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic تَفْرِيق (tafrīq, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”). The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: trafique, traffico, *trānsfrīcāre, تَفْرِيق, ف ر ق, trapik
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɹæfɪk/
- British English: /ˈtɹæfɪk/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Computing.
Inflected Forms
traffics (plural)
traffick (alternative)
traffique (alternative)
traffics (present, singular)
trafficking (participle, present)
trafficked (participle, past)
trafficked (past)
more traffic (comparative)
most traffic (superlative)