tract
pronunciation
How to pronounce tract in British English:
UK [trækt]
How to pronounce tract in American English:
US [trækt]
-
- Noun:
- an extended area of land
- a system of body parts that together serve some particular purpose
- a brief treatise on a subject of interest; published in the form of a booklet
- a bundle of mylenated nerve fibers following a path through the brain
Word Origin
- tract (n.1)
- "area," mid-15c., "period or lapse of time," from Latin tractus "track, course, space, duration," lit, "a drawing out or pulling," from stem of trahere "to pull, draw," from PIE root *tragh- "to draw, drag, move" (cognates: Slovenian trag "trace, track," Middle Irish tragud "ebb;" perhaps with a variant form *dhragh-; see drag (v.)). The meaning "stretch of land or water" is first recorded 1550s. Specific U.S. sense of "plot of land for development" is recorded from 1912; tract housing attested from 1953.
- tract (n.2)
- "little book, treatise" mid-12c., probably a shortened form of Latin tractatus "a handling, treatise, treatment," from tractare "to handle" (see treat (v.)). Related: Tractarian.
Example
- 1. They can invade the digestive tract and block nutritional uptake .
- 2. It is a sign of viral infection in the upper respiratory tract .
- 3. Beihe has recently decided to rent out a large tract of farmland to private investors to turn into a driving school and an auto-parts factory .
- 4. Because contractions of the cervix and vagina during orgasm transport semen deeper into the reproductive tract .
- 5. On its journey through the gi tract the device takes pictures which are transmitted to a computer .