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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

traffic.

Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɹæfɪk/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.

    uncountable · usually
    The traffic is slow during rush hour.
  2. The commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.

    uncountable · usually
  3. A flow of customers for a store or restaurant.

    uncountable · usually
    Sales are down due to a decline in store traffic.
  4. The illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.

    uncountable · usually
  5. The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.

    uncountable · usually
  6. The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network. Of CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.

    uncountable · usually
  7. The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network. The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc., in a publication.

    uncountable · usually
  8. The commodities of the market.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈtɹæfɪk/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods.

    intransitive
  2. To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.

    intransitive
  3. To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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.

adj/ˈtɹæfɪk/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Congested.

    Philippines
    It’s super traffic here in Manila.
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.