Word.ws English Dictionary

test and trace

test and trace noun: a means of combating coronavirus by taking samples from individuals and instructing those who are infected to isolate themselves from others and provide details of their recent close contacts, who are also told to isolate.

Noun

test and trace (uncountable)

  1. (neologism) A means of combating coronavirus by taking samples from individuals and instructing those who are infected to isolate themselves from others and provide details of their recent close contacts, who are also told to isolate.
    • This is the world of “test and trace.” In the past month [i.e., since early March 2020], the coronavirus pandemic has necessitated a deep freeze of US activity.2020, Meredith Celene Schwartz, The Ethics of Pandemics, page 104
    • However, contracts to run certain other elements of test and trace services in England, including contact tracing for non-complex cases, were awarded to private companies with little experience in the area.2021, Scott L. Greer, Elizabeth King, Elize Massard da Fonseca, Coronavirus Politics

Questions about test and trace

What does test and trace mean?
Test and trace means a means of combating coronavirus by taking samples from individuals and instructing those who are infected to isolate themselves from others and provide details of their recent close contacts, who are also told to isolate.
What part of speech is test and trace?
Test and trace is a noun.

Words near test and trace in the dictionary

  1. Tessmer
  2. Tessmers
  3. tessular
  4. Tessy
  5. test
  6. test and trace
  7. test bed
  8. test beds
  9. test bench
  10. test benches
  11. test card

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: test and trace (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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