traction

CEFRB2

/ˈtɹæk.ʃən/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The grip between a surface and a moving object.

  2. 02

    noun

    Support or progress gained for an idea or effort.

Examples

  • Environmental arguments for zero-emission wind and solar power don’t get much traction in Wyoming.

  • Sami started gaining a little bit of traction on social media.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The condition of being so pulled.

  2. The act of pulling something along a surface using motive power.

  3. The pulling power of an engine or animal.

More examples

In context

  • Horse traction was used for all but 23 years of the tramway's life.

  • Despite this somewhat late start, the field of study has gained great traction globally, and since 2015 has even had its own journal: Linguistic Landscape: An International Journal.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The car's tires lost blank on the icy road, causing it to slide.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Medieval Latin tractio, from Latin tractus, perfect passive participle of verb trahere (“pull”), + noun of action suffix -io (genitive -ionis).