traffic
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traffic
- /ˈtɹæfɪk/ US, UK
Rhymes with -æfɪk
Where it comes from
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-”). Displaced native Old English mangung (“traffic, trade, commerce”).
The adjectival sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog trapik and follows a general trend in Philippine English to construct a noun from an adjective.
noun traffics · traffick · traffique
-
Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.
The traffic is slow during rush hour.
Similar: 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).
- 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.
Similar: 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.
- 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.
- The commodities of the market. You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.
verb traffics · trafficking · trafficked · traffick · traffique
-
To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods.
Similar: 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, th
adjective more traffic · most traffic · traffick · traffique
- Congested. It’s super traffic here in Manila.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: dealings, transportation, road, crossing, carriageway, driving, vehicle, highway, vehicular, passenger, shipping, lane, signage, freight, haulage, bus
Translations
Every language
noun pedestrians or vehicles on roads or on the air
| Español | tráfico, tránsito, circulación |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 교통 gyotong |
| 日本語 | 交通 kōtsū |
| 中文 | 交通 jiāotōng |
| हिन्दी | यातायात yātāyāt, परिवहन parivhan, आवागमन āvāgman, ट्रैफ़िक ṭraifik, ट्रैफिक ṭraiphik |
| Português | tráfego, trânsito |
| Français | circulation, trafic |
| Deutsch | Verkehr, Personenverkehr |
| Italiano | traffico, viabilità |
| Română | circulație, trafic, circulație rutieră |
| Русский | движе́ние dvižénije, тра́фик tráfik |
| Tiếng Việt | sự giao thông, giao thông |
| العربية | مُرُور murūr |
| עברית | תְּנוּעָה t'nu'á |
noun exchange or flux of information, messages or data
| 한국어 | 교신 gyosin, 트래픽 teuraepik |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 交信 kōshin, トラフィック torafikku |
| 中文 | 流量 liúliàng |
| हिन्दी | संपर्क sampark, संवाद samvād |
| Português | tráfego, trânsito |
| Deutsch | Verkehr, Datenverkehr |
| Italiano | traffico |
| Русский | тра́фик tráfik |
| עברית | עומס ómes |
noun commercial transportation or exchange of goods
| 日本語 | 取引 torihiki |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 交易 jiāoyì |
| हिन्दी | परिवहन parivhan |
| Português | tráfego |
| Deutsch | Verkehr, Warenverkehr |
| Italiano | traffico |
| Русский | торго́вля torgóvlja |
noun illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs
| Español | trata |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 取引 torihiki |
| हिन्दी | तस्करी taskarī |
| Português | trata, tráfico |
| Français | traite, trafic |
| Italiano | tratta |
| Română | trafic |
| Русский | торго́вля torgóvlja |
| עברית | סחר sákhar |
verb to pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods
| हिन्दी | व्यापार vyāpār |
|---|---|
| עברית | סחר sakhár |
verb to trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain
| Español | traficar |
|---|
Talk about this word "traffic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/traffic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. traffic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/traffic "traffic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/traffic.Cite this
@misc{traffic_2026,
title = {traffic},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/traffic},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
