use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

trace 1 (trās)
Share:
n.
1.
a. A visible mark, such as a footprint, made or left by the passage of a person, animal, or thing.
b. Evidence or an indication of the former presence or existence of something; a vestige: left without a trace of having been there.
2.
a. An extremely small amount or barely perceivable indication: spoke with a trace of sarcasm.
b. A constituent, such as a chemical compound or element, present in quantities less than a standard limit.
3. A path or trail that has been beaten out by the passage of animals or people.
4. An act of researching or ascertaining the origin or location of something: put a trace on the phone call; asked for a trace on a lost package.
5. A line drawn by a recording instrument, such as a cardiograph.
6. Mathematics
a. The point at which a line, or the curve in which a surface, intersects a coordinate plane.
b. The sum of the elements of the principal diagonal of a matrix.
7. An engram.
v. traced, trac·ing, trac·es
v.tr.
1.
a. To go along or follow (a path, for example): We traced the trail up the mountain.
b. To follow the course or trail of: trace a wounded deer.
2.
a. To ascertain the successive stages in the development or progress of: tracing the life cycle of an insect; trace the history of a family.
b. To discover or determine by searching or researching evidence: trace the cause of a disease.
c. To locate or ascertain the origin of: traced the money to a foreign bank account.
3.
a. To draw (a line or figure); sketch; delineate.
b. To form (letters) with special concentration or care.
4.
a. To copy by following lines seen through a sheet of transparent paper.
b. To follow closely (a prescribed pattern): The skater traced a figure eight.
5.
a. To imprint (a design) by pressure with an instrument on a superimposed pattern.
b. To make a design or series of markings on (a surface) by such pressure on a pattern.
6. To record (a variable), as on a graph.
v.intr.
1. To make one's way along a trail or course: We traced along the ridge.
2. To have origins; be traceable: linguistic features that trace to West Africa.
adj.
Occurring in extremely small amounts or in quantities less than a standard limit.

[Middle English, track, from Old French, from tracier, to trace, from Vulgar Latin *tractiāre, from Latin tractus, a dragging, course, from past participle of trahere, to draw.]

tracea·bili·ty n.
tracea·ble adj.
tracea·bly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
trace 2 (trās)
Share:
n.
1. One of two side straps or chains connecting a harnessed draft animal to a vehicle or whiffletree.
2. A bar or rod, hinged at either end to another part, that transfers movement from one part of a machine to another.
Idiom:
kick over the traces
To act in a way that contravenes social expectations or propriety: "As soon as the opportunity presented itself, [he] kicked over the traces and threw himself into a life of pleasure" (K.D. Reynolds).

[Middle English trais, from Old French, pl. of trait, a hauling, harness strap, from Latin tractus, a hauling, from past participle of trahere, to haul.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.