Tram

Pronunciation

• enPR: trăm, IPA: /træm/
• Rhymes: -æm

Probably from Middle Dutch trame. The popular derivation from tramway builder Benjamin Outram is false: the term pre-dated him.

Noun

1. (UK, rail transport) A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road.
2. A similar vehicle for carrying materials.
• 1789, John Brand, History of Newcastle Upon Tyne, volume II, page 681. (Quoted in , centenary edition, 1971, ISBN 304-93570-0.)Trams are a kind of sledge on which coals are brought from the place where they are hewn to the shaft. A tram has four wheels but a sledge is without wheels.
3. (obsolete) The shaft of a cart.
4. (obsolete) One of the rails of a tramway.
5. (UK, obsolete) A car on a horse railroad.

Synonyms

• (passenger vehicle) streetcar

Derived terms

• shoot through like a Bondi tram
• tramline
• tramway

Full definition of tram

Verb

1. (transitive) To transport (material) by tram.

Spanish trama weft, or French trame.

Noun

1. 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.

Anagrams

• mart, RATM