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Added 9 October 2026

tram

/tɹæm/ noun

Latin root: terminus Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about tram at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A conveyance that transports passengers or freight in carriers suspended from cables and supported by a series of towers.
A four-wheeled wagon that runs on tracks in a mine.
a tramcar carries coal out of a coal mine
A wheeled vehicle that runs on rails and is propelled by electricity.

verb

Travel by tram.

Origin

Early 16th century, borrowed from Scots, probably from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic *drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus. Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame. The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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