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train.

Elongated or trailing portion.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɹeɪn/Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈtɹ̝̊ʷeɪ̯n]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯n]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈt̠͡ʃɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯n]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard
  1. Elongated or trailing portion. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground.

    Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle.
  2. Elongated or trailing portion. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder.

  3. Elongated or trailing portion. The tail of a bird.

  4. Elongated or trailing portion. The tail of an animal in general.

    obsolete
  5. Elongated or trailing portion. The elongated body or form of something narrow and winding, such as the course of a river or the body of a snake.

    poetic
  6. Elongated or trailing portion. A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere or accompanying a comet as it nears the sun; tail.

  7. Elongated or trailing portion. An animal's trail or track.

    archaic
  8. Elongated or trailing portion. Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.

    obsolete
  9. Elongated or trailing portion. Gait or manner of running of a horse.

    obsolete
  10. Connected sequence of people or things. A group of people following an important figure such as a king or noble; a retinue, a group of retainers.

  11. Connected sequence of people or things. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession.

    Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial.
  12. Connected sequence of people or things. A group or class of people.

    figuratively · poetic
  13. Connected sequence of people or things. The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege.

  14. Connected sequence of people or things. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something.

  15. Connected sequence of people or things. A set of things, events, or circumstances that follow after or as a consequence; aftermath, wake.

  16. Connected sequence of people or things. State of progress, status, situation (in phrases introduced by in a + adjective); also proper order or situation (introduced by in or in a alone).

    obsolete
    in a fair / better / worse train
  17. Connected sequence of people or things. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence.

  18. Connected sequence of people or things. A series of electrical pulses.

  19. Connected sequence of people or things. A series of specified vehicles (originally tramcars in a mine as usual, later especially railway carriages) coupled together.

  20. Connected sequence of people or things. A mechanical (originally steam-powered, now typically diesel or electrical) vehicle carrying a large number of passengers and freight along a designated track or path; a line of connected wagons considered overall as a mode of transport; (as uncountable noun) rail or road travel.

    on a train
    The train for Edinburgh will leave in 5 minutes.
  21. Connected sequence of people or things. A service on a railway line.

    informal
  22. Connected sequence of people or things. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc.

  23. Connected sequence of people or things. A software release schedule.

  24. Connected sequence of people or things. An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape.

    slang
  25. Connected sequence of people or things. A specified topic, behavior, interest or inclination.

    colloquial
    She doesn't come around any more, cuz she had a kid. She's on the family train now.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ-der.? Latin trahere Vulgar Latin *tragīnāre Old French traïnerder. Old French trainder. Middle English trayne English train From Middle English trayne (“train”), from Old French train (“a delay, a drawing out”), from traïner (“to pull out, to draw”), from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō (“to pull, to draw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English. For the meaning to teach compare typologically Russian ната́скивать (natáskivatʹ) (akin to тащи́ть (taščítʹ)).

verb/ˈtɹeɪn/Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈtɹ̝̊ʷeɪ̯n]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯n]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard[ˈt̠͡ʃɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯n]Canadian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, Standard
  1. To practice an ability.

    intransitive
    She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics.
  2. To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone).

    transitive
    You can't train a pig to write poetry.
  3. To teach and form (someone) by practice; to educate (someone). To feed data into an algorithm, usually based on a neural network, to create a machine learning model that can perform some task.

    transitive
  4. To improve one's fitness.

    intransitive
    I trained with weights all winter.
  5. To proceed in sequence.

    intransitive
  6. To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction.

    transitive
    The assassin had trained his gun on the minister.
  7. To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending.

    transitive
    The vine had been trained over the pergola.
  8. To transport (something) by train.

    transitive
  9. To travel by train.

    intransitive
  10. To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head.

    transitive
  11. To create a trainer (cheat patch) for; to apply cheats to (a game).

    transitive
  12. To draw (something) along; to trail, to drag (something).

    obsolete · transitive
  13. To trail down or along the ground.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ-der.? Latin trahere Vulgar Latin *tragīnāre Old French traïnerder. Old French trainder. Middle English trayne English train From Middle English trayne (“train”), from Old French train (“a delay, a drawing out”), from traïner (“to pull out, to draw”), from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō (“to pull, to draw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English. For the meaning to teach compare typologically Russian ната́скивать (natáskivatʹ) (akin to тащи́ть (taščítʹ)).

noun
  1. Treachery; deceit.

    obsolete · uncountable
  2. A trick or stratagem.

    countable · obsolete
  3. A trap for animals, a snare; (figuratively) a trap in general.

    countable · obsolete
  4. A lure; a decoy.

    countable · obsolete
  5. A live bird, handicapped or disabled in some way, provided for a young hawk to kill as training or enticement.

    countable · obsolete
  6. A clue or trace.

    countable · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English trayne (“treachery”), from Anglo-Norman traine, Middle French traïne, from traïr (“to betray”).

verb
  1. To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To be on intimate terms with.

    colloquial · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English trayne (“treachery”), from Anglo-Norman traine, Middle French traïne, from traïr (“to betray”).

noun
  1. train oil, whale oil

    obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Dutch traan (“tear, drop”), from Middle Dutch trâen, from Old Dutch trān, from Proto-West Germanic *trahnu (“tear”). Compare German Träne (“tear”), Tran (“train oil”).

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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.