Word.ws English Dictionary

tramline

/ˈtɹæmlaɪn/

tramline noun: the rails that a tram runs on.

Noun

tramline (plural tramlines)

  1. The rails that a tram runs on.
    • Transport, motorways and tramlines / Starting and then stopping1997, “Let Down”, in OK Computer, performed by Radiohead
  2. (UK) Either of the two pairs of sidelines marked on a tennis court which mark the outside of the singles and doubles playing areas.
  3. A scratch on a film, usually vertical, that extends through multiple frames.
    • The tramline is therefore much less obvious on the screen. Also, if the scratch is on the base (i.e., on the back of the film), then it will not be in sharp focus.1984, Movie Maker, volume 18, number 2, page 47
  4. A mark or bruise having the shape of two parallel lines.
    • a tramline scar
    • The well-reported "tramlines" or parallel punctate scars on either side of the vein were seen in only four patients.1970 June 13, Dorothy I. Vollum, “Skin Lesions in Drug Addicts”, in British Medical Journal, volume 2, number 5710, London: British Medical Association, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 647
    Synonyms:
    tram track
  5. (Oxford English Dictionary jargon) A pair of vertical bars (||) placed to the left of the headword in certain editions of the OED to indicate that the term is "alien or not fully naturalized" (such as a recent borrowing).
    • Those words that [James] Murray classified as denizens and aliens, as well as those casuals approaching these two prior categories, were marked by two parallel lines beside the headword (||), a symbol known by the in-house term tramline. Murray himself admitted to the inherent subjectivity of his...2014 May 23, Danica Salazar, “Towards improved coverage of Southeast Asian Englishes in the Oxford English Dictionary”, in Lexicography, Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC

Verb

tramline (third-person singular simple present tramlines, present participle tramlining, simple past and past participle tramlined)

  1. (intransitive) Of a vehicle: to tend to follow the contours of the ground with its wheels.
    Synonyms:
    nibble

tramline meaning in Malayalam

tramline in Malayalam

ട്രാം ഓടുന്ന പാളങ്ങൾ

Synonyms of tramline

Forms of tramline

Noun
pluraltramlines
alternative formtram line
Verb
third-person singular presenttramlines
present participletramlining
past participletramlined
pasttramlined

Origin of tramline

From tram + line.

Questions about tramline

What does tramline mean?
Tramline means the rails that a tram runs on.
What is tramline in Malayalam?
Tramline in Malayalam is ട്രാം ഓടുന്ന പാളങ്ങൾ. See Tramline meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is tramline?
Tramline can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tramline?
Tramline is pronounced /ˈtɹæmlaɪn/.
What is the plural of tramline?
The plural of tramline is tramlines.

Words near tramline in the dictionary

  1. tramezzino
  2. tramful
  3. tramfuls
  4. tramiprosate
  5. tramless
  6. tramline
  7. tramlined
  8. tramlines
  9. tramlining
  10. tramload
  11. tramloads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tramline (page history and authors); tramline (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tramline.wav.

Cite this entry: “tramline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tramline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.