Link Centre Dictionary

traffic

traf·fic

US/ˈtɹæfɪk/ common
noun (4) verb (2)

noun

1.

the aggregation of things (pedestrians or vehicles) coming and going in a particular locality during a specified period of time

2.
3.

the amount of activity over a communication system during a given period of time

  • “heavy traffic overloaded the trunk lines”
  • “traffic on the internet is lightest during the night”
4.

social or verbal interchange (usually followed by `with'')

Synonyms

verb

1.

deal illegally

  • “traffic drugs”
2.

trade or deal a commodity

  • “They trafficked with us for gold”

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • 5 o'clock traffic
  • advanced traffic management
  • air traffic
  • air traffic control
  • air traffic controller
  • brain traffic
  • byway open to all traffic
  • centralised traffic control
  • sex trafficking

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.