tram

Meanings

Plural: trams

Noun

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
A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).
A similar vehicle for carrying materials.
A people mover.
An aerial cable car.
A train with wheels that runs on a road; a trackless train.
A car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).
The shaft of a cart.
One of the rails of a tramway.
A silk thread formed of two or more threads twisted together, used especially for the weft, or cross threads, of the best quality of velvets and silk goods.

Verb

travel by tram
To operate, or conduct the business of, a tramway.
To travel by tram.
To transport (material) by tram.
To align a component in mechanical engineering or metalworking, particularly the spindle of a mill or drill press, as historically accomplished using a trammel.
To weave in this manner.

Origin / Etymology

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.
The sense of a rail vehicle derives from tram-way, in its earliest sense meaning literally a log-covered road, but later applied to the earliest wooden railways, used for transporting coal in carts which came to be called "trams".

Synonyms

aerial tramway, cable tramway, ropeway, streetcar, tramcar, tramway, trolley, trolley car

Scrabble Score: 6

tram is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
tram is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
tram is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 7

tram is a valid Words With Friends word