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tract

[trakt]

noun

an expanse or area of land, water, etc.; region; stretch.

Anatomy.

a definite region or area of the body, especially a group, series, or system of related parts or organs: the digestive tract.

a bundle of nerve fibers having a common origin and destination.

a stretch or period of time; interval; lapse.

Roman Catholic Church. an anthem consisting of verses of Scripture, sung after the gradual in the Mass from Septuagesima until the day before Easter and on certain other occasions, taking the place of the alleluias and the verse that ordinarily accompany the gradual.

Ornithology. a pteryla.

Origin:
1350–1400; (in senses referring to extent of space) < Latin tractus stretch (of space or time), a drawing out, equivalent to trac-, variant stem of trahere to draw + -tus suffix of v. action; (def. 4) < Medieval Latin tractus, apparently identical with the above, though literal sense unexplained

Synonyms
1. district, territory.

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Tract is always a great word to know.

So is marrow. Does it mean:

a glandular organ functioning in the secretion of bile and metabolic processes such as converting sugars located in the upper right abdominal cavity

a soft, fatty, vascular tissue in the interior cavities of bones that is a major site of blood cell production

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Example Sentences

It may be temporary or permanent, and can result from a variety of problems in the urinary tract.

But these probes are clunky and need a wide tract to move through.

Chlorine, the active ingredient in conventional laundry bleach, can spur an allergic reaction or irritate your respiratory tract.

EXPAND

It may be temporary or permanent, and can result from a variety of problems in the urinary tract.

But these probes are clunky and need a wide tract to move through.

Chlorine, the active ingredient in conventional laundry bleach, can spur an allergic reaction or irritate your respiratory tract.

Your digestive tract is home to about a trillion bacteria.

It also acts as a diuretic and can be a urinary tract irritant.

Consider uterine fibroids, which are benign tumors of the reproductive tract.

Something that is harder to cover up is the stamp that the anatomy of a person's vocal tract leaves.

The armies of microbes in your digestive tract are so essential to survival that you're a super-organism, a new study says.

Car-centered living and ubiquitous tract housing, on the other hand, look more and more absurd.

The cloud would outline your skin, delineate your lungs, trace your digestive tract.

The mutineers were found in possession of copies of a political tract he had composed.

Today, it's the largest surviving single tract of mangroves in the world.

You're going to need to restore the helpful organisms in your digestive tract.

Take the vast triangular tract of land at the south of the map.

His report found that there was no evidence of heat injury to the dog's respiratory tract.

They found that the viruses connected to particular types of sugar found on the surface of upper respiratory tract cells.

It has gold and the country's largest tract of arable land.

Tiny snails can travel through a bird's digestive tract and mysteriously emerge perfectly healthy, a new study says.

It functions as an expectorant, helping you hack up the gunk in your respiratory tract.

Urinary tract closure is life-threatening within hours.

Mullins has stated he might donate land to serve as development mitigation zones on his tract.

It lives inside the respiratory tract of three quarters of the human population.

Both bird and human flu viruses infect people by attaching themselves to cells in the respiratory tract.

Ayres lobbied for conservation of a larger tract of rain forest.

The fur of otters and seals are also coated, and oil entering the digestive tract of animals may damage their organs.

Upper respiratory tract infections affect the airways in the nose, ears, and throat.

Still parts of the digestive tract and gross, but different.

Strange but true: the brain is shaped by bacteria in the digestive tract.

He then taps her body where the reproductive tract will eventually open.

So the cake could be a stand-in for a tract of land that's part forest and part seashore.

Have the monitoring team devise methods for monitoring the status of the species on a tract of land in your community.

Other residents have high rates of digestive tract and breast cancers.

Mr al-Zawahiri's tract has been widely distributed in seminaries there.

Females have thick padding on their reproductive tract that's reinforced with strong, elastic connective tissue.

It seems no more likely to me than that it will alter the mechanisms of our digestive tract.

When people ingest the worm, it travels from the gastrointestinal tract to the central nervous system.

It tends to infect the intestinal tract more in kids, with diarrhea and vomiting.

Sudden opening of the cords allows the pressurized air to flow back up the respiratory tract to expel the irritants.

Tract houses on prim lanes have been built over the original pasture.

We have successfully grown not only cartilage, bone and skin but urinary tract and liver tissue.

Bloody stools often are a sign of an injury or disorder in the digestive tract.

The goal of treatment is to relieve the blockage, which will allow urine to drain from the urinary tract.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a brief treatise or pamphlet for general distribution, usually on a religious or political topic.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English tracte, apparently shortening of Medieval Latin tractātus tractate

Synonyms
essay, homily, disquisition.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To tract

Collins

World English Dictionary

tract¹ (trækt)

—n
1.	an extended area, as of land
2.	anatomy a system of organs, glands, or other tissues that has a particular function: the digestive tract
3.	a bundle of nerve fibres having the same function, origin, and termination: the optic tract
4.	archaic an extended period of time

[C15: from Latin tractus a stretching out, from trahere to drag]

tract² (trækt)

—n
	a treatise or pamphlet, esp a religious or moralistic one

[C15: from Latin tractātustractate]

tract³ (trækt)

—n
	RC Church an anthem in some Masses

[C14: from Medieval Latin tractus cantus extended song; see tract¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

tract

"area," 1494, "period or lapse of time," from L. tractus "track, course, space, duration," lit, "a drawing out or pulling," from stem of trahere "to pull, draw," from PIE base *tragh- "to draw, drag, move" (cf. Slovenian trag "trace, track," M.Ir. tragud "ebb," with variant form *dhragh-; see

EXPAND

drag). The meaning "stretch of land or water" is first recorded 1553. Specific U.S. sense of "plot of land for development" is recorded from 1912; tract houses attested from 1963.

tract

"little book," early 15c., probably a shortened form of L. tractatus "a handling, treatise, treatment," from tractare "to handle" (see treat). Not in any other language, according to OED.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

tract (trākt)
n.

An elongated assembly of tissue or organs having a common origin, function, and termination, or a serial arrangement having a common function.
A bundle of nerve fibers having a common origin, termination, and function.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

tract (trākt) Pronunciation Key

A series of body organs that work together to perform a specialized function, such as digestion.
A bundle of nerve fibers, especially in the central nervous system, that begin and end in the same place and share a common function.

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"Every living language, like the perspiring bodies of living creatures, is in perpetual motion and alteration; some words go off, and become obsolete; others are taken in, and by degrees grow into common use; or the same word is inverted to a new sense or notion, which in tract of time makes an observable change in the air and features of a language, as age makes in the lines and mien of a face."

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