traffic
Syllables: traf·ficUK/ˈtɹæfɪk/
traffic noun: moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
Noun
traffic (usually uncountable, plural traffics)
- Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
- The traffic is slow during rush hour.
- VVhoſe miſaduentures, piteous ouerthrovves, / (Through the continuing of their Fathers ſtrife, / And death-markt paſſage of their Parents rage) / Is novv the tvvo hovvres traffique of our Stage.c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], “The Prologue”, in […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- travel
- The commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
- I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians).1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
- To assume that the recent investigation of the white slave traffic (and, by the way, a very superficial investigation) has discovered anything new, is, to say the least, very foolish1910, Emma Goldman, “The Traffic in Women”, in Anarchism and Other Essays
- A flow of customers for a store or restaurant.
- Sales are down due to a decline in store traffic.
- The illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
- They, in turn, had long dominated the drug traffic in the area of north-east Afghanistan that they controlled during the Taliban years.2018 January 9, Alfred W. McCoy, “How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- trafficking
- The exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
- The parish stank of idolatry, abominable rites were practiced in secret, and in all the bounds there was no one had a more evil name for the black traffic than one Alison Sempill, who bode at the Skerburnfoot.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
- Internet traffic to legal pornography sites in the UK comprised 8.5% of all "clicks" on web pages in June – exceeding those for shopping, news, business or social networks, according to new data obtained exclusively by the Guardian.2013 July 26, Charles Arthur, “Porn sites get more internet traffic in UK than social networks or shopping”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Of CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.
- The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc., in a publication.
- Those fixed locations which are sold to advertisers become preferred according to the expected page traffic.1950, Advertising & Selling (volume 43, part 2, page 53)
- The commodities of the market.
- You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.1716, John Gay, Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London
Verb
traffic (third-person singular simple present traffics, present participle trafficking, simple past and past participle trafficked)
- To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods.
- Synonyms:
- trade
- To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
- To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.
- A Libyan longing took us, and we would have chosen, if we could, to bear a strand of grotesque beads, or a handful of brazen gauds, and traffic them for some sable maid with crisp locks, whom, uncoffling from the captive train beside the desert, we should make to do our general housework forever...1912, The World's Wit and Humor, page 176
Adjective
traffic (comparative more traffic, superlative most traffic)
- Congested.
- It’s super traffic here in Manila.
traffic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
traffic in Hindi
- pedestrians or vehicles on roads or on the air
- यातायात yātāyāt, परिवहन parivhan, आवागमन āvāgman, ट्रैफ़िक ṭraifik, ट्रैफिक ṭraiphik
- exchange or flux of information, messages or data
- संपर्क sampark, संवाद samvād
- commercial transportation or exchange of goods
- परिवहन parivhan
- illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs
- तस्करी taskarī
traffic in Tamil
- pedestrians or vehicles on roads or on the air
- திரக்கு tirakku
traffic in Marathi
- pedestrians or vehicles on roads or on the air
- रहदारी rahdārī
traffic in Urdu
- pedestrians or vehicles on roads or on the air
- ٹَرافِک ṭarāfik, سَودا saudā, آمد و رفت āmad-o-raft, ٹْرَیفِک ṭraifik
More languagesFewer languages
- traffic in Bengali
- ট্র্যাফিক ṭrjaphik
- traffic in Telugu
- ట్రాఫిక్
- traffic in Malayalam
- ഗതാഗതം gatāgataṁ
- traffic in Kannada
- ಅಕ್ರಮ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ, ಸಾಗಣೆ, ಸಾಗಾಣಿಕೆ, ವಾಹನಗಳು
- traffic in Punjabi
- ਆਵਾਜਾਈ āvājāī, آواجائی āvājāī, ਲਾਂਘਾ lāṅghā, گیڑا geṛā
- traffic in Gujarati
- ટ્રાફિક, અવરજવર
- traffic in Odia
- ଟ୍ରାଫିକ୍, ଟ୍ରାଫିକ
- traffic in Nepali
- ट्राफिक, ट्राफीक
- traffic in Tagalog
- trapiko
- traffic in Arabic
- مُرُور murūr
- traffic in Malay
- lalu lintas, trafik
- traffic in Indonesian
- lalu lintas
- traffic in Thai
- จราจร jà-raa-jɔɔn
- traffic in Vietnamese
- sự giao thông, giao thông
- traffic in Myanmar
- အသွားအလာ a.swa:a.la
Examples of traffic in a sentence
- A sudden chemical spill on the highway created a chain‐collision which created a record traffic jam.
- If more drivers knew how to zipper, the accident would not have disrupted traffic so much.
- Let X represent the forecast traffic flow in 20 years’ time.
Synonyms of traffic
Forms of traffic
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | traffics |
| alternative form | traffick |
| alternative form | traffique |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | traffics |
| present participle | trafficking |
| past participle | trafficked |
| past | trafficked |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more traffic |
| superlative | most traffic |
Origin of traffic
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.
Words formed from traffic
- 5 o'clock traffic
- advanced traffic management
- air traffic
- air traffic control
- air traffic controller
- antitraffic
- brain traffic
- byway open to all traffic
- centralised traffic control
- cybertraffic
- dark traffic
- felony traffic stop
- foot traffic
- go and play in the traffic
- go and play in traffic
- go play in the traffic
- go play in traffic
- go with the flow of traffic
- intertraffic
- mall traffic
- mixed-traffic
- narcotraffic
- nontraffic
- non-traffic
- stop traffic
- teletraffic
- through traffic
- traffic advisory
- trafficator
- traffic barrel
- traffic barrier
- traffic beam
- traffic boy
- traffic bump
- traffic calming
- traffic circle
- traffic code
- traffic cone
- traffic conference area
- traffic cop
- traffic court
- traffic drum
- traffic enforcer
- traffic engineering
- traffic-free
- traffic furniture
- traffic garden
- traffic generator
- traffic island
- traffic jam
- trafficky
- traffic lead
- traffic leash
- trafficless
- traffic-light
- traffic light
- traffic mile
- traffic officer
- traffic of influence
- traffic paddle
Phrases with traffic
- traffic boys
- traffic cops
- traffic jams
- traffic park
- traffic sign
- traffic stop
- stops traffic
- traffic beams
- traffic bumps
- traffic codes
- traffic cones
- traffic miles
43 more phrasesFewer phrases
- traffic parks
- traffic signs
- traffic stops
- traffic lights
- traffic police
- traffic signal
- traffic spikes
- traffic ticket
- traffic warden
- stopped traffic
- traffic barrels
- traffic circles
- traffic islands
- traffic leashes
- traffic paddles
- traffic shaping
- traffic signals
- traffic stopper
- traffic tickets
- traffic wardens
- stopping traffic
- traffic barriers
- traffic officers
- traffic stoppers
- traffic violation
- traffic advisories
- traffic generators
- traffic signal box
- traffic violations
- traffic light party
- felony traffic stops
- traffic signal boxes
- traffic light parties
- Traffic Light Protocol
- air traffic controllers
- traffic light coalition
- traffic conference areas
- traffic light coalitions
- byways open to all traffic
- goes with the flow of traffic
- gone with the flow of traffic
- went with the flow of traffic
- going with the flow of traffic
Words that rhyme with traffic
- graphic
- sapphic
- orthographic
- photographic
- seraphic
- acrographic
- alveographic
- biogeographic
- cartographic
- dendrographic
- maffick
- pornographic
3 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about traffic
- What does traffic mean?
- Traffic means moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
- What is traffic in Hindi?
- Traffic in Hindi is यातायात (yātāyāt), परिवहन (parivhan), आवागमन (āvāgman). See Traffic meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is traffic?
- Traffic can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce traffic?
- Traffic is pronounced /ˈtɹæfɪk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of traffic?
- The plural of traffic is traffics.
Words near traffic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: traffic (page history and authors); traffic (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); traffic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); آواجائی (Punjabi) (page history and authors); traffic (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); traffic (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); traffic (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-traffic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “traffic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/traffic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.