# tract
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tɹækt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Homophone: tracked
* Rhymes: -ækt

### Etymology 1

From Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.

#### Noun

tract (plural tracts)
* An area or expanse.
    an unexplored tract of sea
** 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:the deep tract of hell
** 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth
** a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC:small tracks of ground
** 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:Another place where, from the aesthetic point of view, a long tunnel would have been a real blessing, is East London as viewed from the carriage window on the old Great Eastern line. Despite a vast change from crowded slums to tracts of wasteland, due to its grim wartime experience, this approach still provides a shabby and unworthy introduction to the great capital.
* (anatomy) A series of connected body organs, such as the digestive tract.
* A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
* A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
** 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit:The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.
* A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
* Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
** 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:improved by tract of time
** 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XIV, Henry of Essex”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in Lailand Hundred, involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time […]
* (Roman Catholicism) Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
* (obsolete) Continuity or extension of anything.
** 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech:in tract of speech
* (obsolete) Traits; features; lineaments.
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Simulation and Dissimulation”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.
* (obsolete) The footprint of a wild animal.
** 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “Book 13”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:The Prophet Telemus […] mark'd the Tracts of every Bird that flew
* (obsolete) Track; trace.
** 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:Efface all tract of its traduction.
** c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.
* (obsolete) Treatment; exposition.
** 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:The tract of every thing Would, by a good discourser, lose some life Which action's self was tongue to.

##### Synonyms

* (series of connected body organs): system

##### Derived terms

* biliary tract
* census tract
* digestive tract
* gastrointestinal tract
* GI tract
* iliotibial tract
* lower respiratory tract
* pyramidal tract
* respiratory tract
* spinoreticular tract
* Tractarian
* tract home
* tract house
* tract housing
* tract mansion
* tract of land
* Trans-Karakoram Tract
* upper respiratory tract
* urinary tract
* urinary tract infection
* vocal tract

##### Related terms

* abstract
* attract
* contract
* detract
* distract
* extract
* protract
* retract
* subtract
* tract
* tractor
* tractable
* tractate
* tractile
* traction
* tractive
* trait
* treat

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2

From Latin tractus, the participle stem of trahere (“to pull, drag”).

#### Verb

tract (third-person singular simple present tracts, present participle tracting, simple past and past participle tracted)
* (obsolete) To pursue, follow; to track.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Where may that treachour then (said he) be found, / Or by what meanes may I his footing tract?
* (obsolete) To draw out; to protract.
** 1616, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Of The Art of Poetry”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, →OCLC:Speak to me , muse , the man , who after Troy was sack'd , Saw many towns and men , and could their manners tract.

### Etymology 3

From Latin tractāre, from tractō, from trahō +‎ -tō.

#### Verb

tract (third-person singular simple present tracts, present participle tracting, simple past and past participle tracted)
* (transitive, obsolete) To treat, discourse, negotiate.

### Further reading

* “tract, v1.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

### Anagrams

* T-cart

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from English tract.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tʁakt/

### Noun

tract m (plural tracts)
* flyer, circular, pamphlet

#### Derived terms

* tracter

### Further reading

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

## Old English
### Noun

tract m
* Alternative form of traht