TRACE
What does "TRACE" mean?
To find or follow the course of something, or a very small remaining amount of something.
Meanings
- To follow or discover by signs or evidence the course, origin, or development of something. Detectives traced the call to a payphone downtown.
- To copy a drawing or design by following its lines on transparent paper laid over it. She traced the map onto tissue paper.
- A mark, sign, or piece of evidence that something has happened or existed. The hikers left no trace of their camp.
- A very small amount of something. The water contained only a trace of lead.
Did you know?
- Modern forensics rests on Edmond Locard's principle that 'every contact leaves a trace' - you cannot enter a room without taking something and leaving something behind.
Word origin
From Old French 'trace', 'track of a person or animal', from the verb 'tracier', from Vulgar Latin 'tractiare', from Latin 'tractus', 'a drawing out', from 'trahere', 'to drag'.
Remember it
TRACE = T + RACE: to trace a culprit is to RACE along the trail of T-marks they left behind.
A little poem
No one leaves a room as they came-
a hair, a print, a warmth on the chair;
the world keeps quiet records of our name.
tercet
Wordplay
- The artist who only copied other people's work vanished without a trace - which, ironically, was the one thing he never learned to make.
What it teaches
Nothing passes through the world unmarked; you are always leaving traces, so choose what you leave.
Quick facts
What does TRACE mean?
To find or follow the course of something, or a very small remaining amount of something.
Is TRACE a valid word?
Yes — TRACE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is TRACE?
TRACE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does TRACE come from?
From Old French 'trace', 'track of a person or animal', from the verb 'tracier', from Vulgar Latin 'tractiare', from Latin 'tractus', 'a drawing out', from 'trahere', 'to drag'.
What can TRACE teach us?
Nothing passes through the world unmarked; you are always leaving traces, so choose what you leave.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.