trace
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹeɪs/
ipa: [tʃɹeɪs]
rhymes: -eɪs
Forms: form: traces
Etymology: From Middle English trace, traas, from Old French trace (“an outline, track, trace”), from the verb (see below).
Senses: examples: text: Your cell phone company can put a trace on your line.
glosses: An act of tracing.
glosses: An enquiry sent out for a missing article, such as a letter or an express package.
examples: text: Those are the times you write it off, experience / Walk away, and leave no trace / Cause that night, love had no face
ref: 1983, Ashford & Simpson, “Experience (Love Had No Face)”, in High-Rise (album):
synonyms: track
trail
glosses: A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.
examples: text: There are traces of chocolate around your lips.
text: All of our chocolates may contain traces of nuts.
text: The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: And by mornin'
Gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean
ref: 2014 October 27, Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap, “Clean (Taylor's Version)”, in 1989 (Taylor's Version), performed by Taylor Swift, published 27 October 2023:
synonyms: word: show
word: ace
word: tinge
word: atom
word: trace element
word: aught
word: bissel
word: bit
word: crumb
word: glimpse
word: dab
word: damn
word: dash
word: diddly
word: glint
word: dot
word: spatter
word: drop
word: dusting
word: fleck
word: hint
word: flip
word: flyspeck
word: grain
word: halfpennyworth
word: inch
word: iota
word: jot
word: lick
word: mite
word: modicum
word: molecule
word: morceau
word: morsel
word: mote
word: ooch
word: ounce
word: particle
word: pennyworth
word: piece
word: pinch
word: scantling
word: semblance
word: scent
word: scintilla
word: scooch
word: scrap
word: scruple
word: shred
word: skerrick
word: skoosh
word: skosh
word: sliver
word: smattering
word: smidge
word: smidgen
word: smidget
word: smidgy
word: smitch
word: smithereen
word: soupçon
word: spark
word: speck
word: speckle
word: spot
word: sprinkle
word: sprinkling
word: strain
word: tad
word: tidbit
word: tidge
word: tittle
word: toddick
word: touch
word: trace
word: trifle
word: tuppence worth
word: vestige
word: whiff
word: whit
glosses: A very small amount, often residual, of some substance or material.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
synonyms: word: show
word: ace
word: tinge
word: atom
word: trace element
word: aught
word: bissel
word: bit
word: crumb
word: glimpse
word: dab
word: damn
word: dash
word: diddly
word: glint
word: dot
word: spatter
word: drop
word: dusting
word: fleck
word: hint
word: flip
word: flyspeck
word: grain
word: halfpennyworth
word: inch
word: iota
word: jot
word: lick
word: mite
word: modicum
word: molecule
word: morceau
word: morsel
word: mote
word: ooch
word: ounce
word: particle
word: pennyworth
word: piece
word: pinch
word: scantling
word: semblance
word: scent
word: scintilla
word: scooch
word: scrap
word: scruple
word: shred
word: skerrick
word: skoosh
word: skosh
word: sliver
word: smattering
word: smidge
word: smidgen
word: smidget
word: smidgy
word: smitch
word: smithereen
word: soupçon
word: spark
word: speck
word: speckle
word: spot
word: sprinkle
word: sprinkling
word: strain
word: tad
word: tidbit
word: tidge
word: tittle
word: toddick
word: touch
word: trace
word: trifle
word: tuppence worth
word: vestige
word: whiff
word: whit
glosses: A very small amount, often residual, of some substance or material.
A small amount of rain, not enough to be measured.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
glosses: An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
glosses: 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.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: fortification
fortifications
government
military
politics
war
glosses: The ground plan of a work or works.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.
examples: text: [S]upposing the NP has raised in (18), the potential bindees are the clitic and the trace of the focalized NP, neither of which qualifies as a syntactic variable.
ref: 1999, Georges Rebuschi, Laurice Tuller, The Grammar of Focus, page 290:
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A sequence of instructions, including branches but not loops, that is executed for some input data.
Derived terms: contact trace
contact-trace
downtrace
uptrace
fault trace
foliar trace
leaf trace
leave no trace
stack trace
time trace
trace element
trace fossil
trace horse
trace italienne
trace scheduling
trap and trace
without trace
without a trace