What does trace mean?

Definitions for trace
treɪstrace

Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word trace.

Princeton's WordNet(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

trace, hint, suggestion(noun)
a just detectable amount
"he speaks French with a trace of an accent"
trace, vestige, tincture, shadow(noun)
an indication that something has been present
"there wasn't a trace of evidence for the claim"; "a tincture of condescension"
touch, trace, ghost(noun)
a suggestion of some quality
"there was a touch of sarcasm in his tone"; "he detected a ghost of a smile on her face"
tracing, trace(noun)
a drawing created by superimposing a semitransparent sheet of paper on the original image and copying on it the lines of the original image
trace(noun)
either of two lines that connect a horse's harness to a wagon or other vehicle or to a whiffletree
trace(verb)
a visible mark (as a footprint) left by the passage of person or animal or vehicle
trace, follow(verb)
follow, discover, or ascertain the course of development of something
"We must follow closely the economic development is Cuba" ; "trace the student's progress"
trace, draw, line, describe, delineate(verb)
make a mark or lines on a surface
"draw a line"; "trace the outline of a figure in the sand"
trace, retrace(verb)
to go back over again
"we retraced the route we took last summer"; "trace your path"
hound, hunt, trace(verb)
pursue or chase relentlessly
"The hunters traced the deer into the woods"; "the detectives hounded the suspect until they found him"
trace(verb)
discover traces of
"She traced the circumstances of her birth"
trace(verb)
make one's course or travel along a path; travel or pass over, around, or along
"The children traced along the edge of the dark forest"; "The women traced the pasture"
trace(verb)
copy by following the lines of the original drawing on a transparent sheet placed upon it; make a tracing of
"trace a design"; "trace a pattern"
decipher, trace(verb)
read with difficulty
"Can you decipher this letter?"; "The archeologist traced the hieroglyphs"

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

trace(Noun)
An act of tracing.
Your cell phone company can put a trace on your line.
trace(Noun)
A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.
trace(Noun)
A very small amount.
trace(Noun)
An electric current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.
trace(Noun)
An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.
trace(Noun)
The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.
trace(Verb)
To follow the trail of.
trace(Verb)
To follow the history of.
trace(Verb)
To draw or sketch.
trace(Verb)
To copy onto a sheet of transparent paper.
trace(Verb)
To walk; to go; to travel.
Not wont on foot with heavy arms to trace. uE000106720uE001 Spenser.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Trace(noun)
one of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whiffletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug
Trace(verb)
a mark left by anything passing; a track; a path; a course; a footprint; a vestige; as, the trace of a carriage or sled; the trace of a deer; a sinuous trace
Trace(verb)
a very small quantity of an element or compound in a given substance, especially when so small that the amount is not quantitatively determined in an analysis; -- hence, in stating an analysis, often contracted to tr
Trace(verb)
a mark, impression, or visible appearance of anything left when the thing itself no longer exists; remains; token; vestige
Trace(verb)
the intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane
Trace(verb)
the ground plan of a work or works
Trace(verb)
to mark out; to draw or delineate with marks; especially, to copy, as a drawing or engraving, by following the lines and marking them on a sheet superimposed, through which they appear; as, to trace a figure or an outline; a traced drawing
Trace(verb)
to follow by some mark that has been left by a person or thing which has preceded; to follow by footsteps, tracks, or tokens
Trace(verb)
hence, to follow the trace or track of
Trace(verb)
to copy; to imitate
Trace(verb)
to walk over; to pass through; to traverse
Trace(verb)
to walk; to go; to travel

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

TRACE
TRACE was a NASA space telescope designed to investigate the connections between fine-scale magnetic fields and the associated plasma structures on the Sun by providing high resolution images and observation of the solar photosphere and transition region to the corona. A main focus of the TRACE instrument is the fine structure of coronal loops low in the solar atmosphere. TRACE is a SMEX or SMall EXplorer mission, launched in 1998 and obtaining its last science image in 2010. The satellite was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Its telescope was constructed by a consortium led by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center. The optics were designed and built to a state-of-the-art surface finish for the period, by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge MA. TRACE was launched in April 1998 on a Pegasus rocket, has a 30 cm aperture and 1024 x 1024 CCD detector giving an 8.5 arc minute field of view. The telescope is designed to take correlated images in a range of wavelengths from visible light, through the Lyman alpha line to far ultraviolet. The different wavelength passbands correspond to plasma emission temperatures from 4,000 to 4,000,000 K. The optics use a special multilayer technique to focus the difficult-to-reflect EUV light; the technique was first used for solar imaging in the late 1980s and 1990s, notably by the MSSTA and NIXT sounding rocket payloads.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

Trace
trās, n. a mark left: footprint: a small quantity: (fort.) the ground-plan of a work.—v.t. to follow by tracks or footsteps, to discover the tracks of, to follow step by step, to traverse: to follow with exactness: to sketch: to cover with traced lines or tracery.—v.i. to move, travel: to dance.—adj. Trace′able, that may be traced.—n. Trace′ableness.—adv. Trace′ably.—ns. Trā′cer; Trā′cery, ornamentation traced in flowing outline: the beautiful forms in stone with which the arches of Gothic windows are filled for the support of the glass. [Fr.,—L. tructus, pa.p. of trahĕre, to draw.]
Trace
trās, n. one of the straps by which a vehicle is drawn. [O. Fr. trays, trais, same as traits, pl. of trait; cf. Trait.]

British National Corpus

Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'trace' in Nouns Frequency: #1898
Verbs Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'trace' in Verbs Frequency: #605

Anagrams for trace »

crate
react
recta
caret
cater

How to pronounce trace ?

Alex
US English
Daniel
British
Karen
Australian
Veena
Indian

How to say trace in sign language?

Numerology

Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of trace in Chaldean Numerology is: 6
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of trace in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of trace in a Sentence

Matthew Hynes:
It was not a trace amount.
Enrique Marquez:
They can trace all the guns back to me.
Mehmet Murat ildan:
If you leave a good trace behind you, that trace will continue its walk even if you stop!
Mitesh Dalal:
Nothing is worthless on the earth, Trace your hidden skills and make yourself a precious one :)
Joshua James:
From a law enforcement or investigation side, we're trying to actually trace back to who did it.