travel
Americanverb (used without object)
-
travels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
traveled,
past participle, past
-
travelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
traveling,
present participle
-
travelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to go from one place to another, as by car, train, plane, or ship; take a trip; journey.
to travel for pleasure.
-
to move or go from one place or point to another.
-
to proceed or advance in any way.
-
to go from place to place as a representative of a business firm.
-
to associate or consort.
He travels in a wealthy crowd.
-
Informal. to move with speed.
-
to pass, or be transmitted, as light or sound.
-
Basketball. (of a player in possession of the ball) to take more than two steps without dribbling or passing the ball.
-
to move in a fixed course, as a piece of mechanism.
verb (used with object)
-
travels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
traveled,
past participle, past
-
travelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
traveling,
present participle
-
travelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to travel, journey, or pass through or over, as a country or road.
-
to journey or traverse (a specified distance).
We traveled a hundred miles.
-
to cause to journey; ship.
to travel logs downriver.
noun
-
the act of traveling; journeying, especially to distant places.
to travel to other planets.
-
travels,
-
to set out on one's travels.
-
journeys as the subject of a written account or literary work.
a book of travels.
-
such an account or work.
-
-
the coming and going of persons or conveyances along a way of passage; traffic.
an increase in travel on state roads.
-
Basketball. an instance of traveling with the ball.
-
Machinery.
-
the complete movement of a moving part, especially a reciprocating part, in one direction, or the distance traversed; stroke.
-
length of stroke.
-
-
movement or passage in general.
to reduce the travel of food from kitchen to table.
adjective
verb
-
to go, move, or journey from one place to another
he travels to improve his mind
she travelled across France
-
(tr) to go, move, or journey through or across (an area, region, etc)
he travelled the country
-
to go, move, or cover a specified or unspecified distance
-
to go from place to place as a salesman
to travel in textiles
-
(esp of perishable goods) to withstand a journey
-
(of light, sound, etc) to be transmitted or move
the sound travelled for miles
-
to progress or advance
-
basketball to take an excessive number of steps while holding the ball
-
(of part of a mechanism) to move in a fixed predetermined path
-
informal to move rapidly
that car certainly travels
-
informal (often foll by with) to be in the company (of); associate
noun
-
-
the act of travelling
-
( as modifier )
a travel brochure
-
-
(usually plural) a tour or journey
-
the distance moved by a mechanical part, such as the stroke of a piston
-
movement or passage
Spelling
The word travel has come to exemplify a common spelling quandary: to double or not to double the final consonant of a verb before adding the ending that forms the past tense ( –ed ) or the ending that forms the present-participle ( –ing. ) We see it done both ways—sometimes with the same word ( travel, traveled, traveling; travel, travelled, travelling ). As readers, we accept these variations without even thinking about them. But as writers, we need to know just when we should double that final consonant and when we should not. Because American practice differs slightly from British practice, there is no one answer. But there are well-established conventions. In American writing, when you have a one-syllable verb that ends with a single vowel followed by a single consonant, and you want to add a regular inflectional ending that begins with a vowel, you double that final consonant before adding -ed or -ing : stop, stopped, stopping; flag, flagged, flagging. This principle also holds for verbs of more than one syllable if the final syllable is stressed: permit, permitted, permitting; refer, referred, referring. If that syllable is not stressed, there is no doubling of the final consonant: gallop, galloped, galloping; travel, traveled, traveling. British spelling conventions are similar. They deviate from American practices only when the verb ends with a single vowel followed by an l . In that case, no matter the stress pattern, the final l gets doubled. Thus British writing has repel, repelled, repelling (as would American writing, since the final syllable is stressed). But it also has travel, travelled, travelling and cancel, cancelled, cancelling, since in the context of British writing the verb’s final l, not its stress pattern, is the determining factor. Verbs ending in other consonants have the same doubling patterns that they would have in American writing. An outlier on both sides of the Atlantic is the small group of verbs ending in -ic and one lonely -ac verb. They require an added k before inflectional endings in order to retain the appropriate “hard” sound of the letter c : panic, panicked, panicking; frolic, frolicked, frolicking; shellac, shellacked, shellacking. Canadians, of course, are free to use either British or American spellings.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
pretravelnoun
-
outtravelverb (used with object)
-
nontravelingadjective
-
nontravellingadjective
-
travelableadjective
-
untravelingadjective
-
untravellingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
travelsimple
-
travelssimple
-
have traveledperfect
-
have travelledperfect
-
has traveledperfect
-
has travelledperfect
-
am travelingprogressive
-
am travellingprogressive
-
are travelingprogressive
-
are travellingprogressive
-
is travelingprogressive
-
is travellingprogressive
-
have been travelingperfect progressive
-
have been travellingperfect progressive
-
has been travelingperfect progressive
-
has been travellingperfect progressive
Past
-
traveledsimple
-
travelledsimple
-
had traveledperfect
-
had travelledperfect
-
was travelingprogressive
-
was travellingprogressive
-
were travelingprogressive
-
were travellingprogressive
-
had been travelingperfect progressive
-
had been travellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of travel
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (Northern and Scots), originally the same word as travail (by semantic change from “to toil, labor,” then “to make a laborious journey,” then “to journey,” a change that did not occur in French and other Romance languages); spelling travel is due to an accent shift in the 14th century
Explanation
To travel is the act of going from one place to another, usually a considerable distance. Your daily commute in the morning doesn't generally count as travel. Your trip to Timbuktu? That counts. Travel can also be used as a noun — as in your travels to Timbuktu. Or perhaps you prefer time travel or space travel. Objects that are especially adapted for use when you travel are often modified by the word travel; for example, a "travel-bag," "travel- games," or a "travel iron." And if something is particularly popular in another country or culture from its place of origin, say a cheese, a wine, or a type of music, it's said to "travel well."
Vocabulary lists containing travel
"Mysteries of the Ancient Past"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Escaping to Freedom" and "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Experience: In June, Arey ran unsuccessfully to represent District 3 on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, a campaign that allowed her to travel throughout the district to hear the concerns of constituents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
No. But wherever I travel, I do that with the team and you notice things.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
When two neutron stars merge, they generate gravitational waves that travel through space.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Aaron drives a diesel car, and so is paying record high prices to travel to and from work.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
They still had to travel one hundred and seven miles to reach Nome.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
These include a specialized sensory structure known as the macula neglecta, which may help them detect motion and vibrations generated as sound travels through water.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
So on Air Force One, for example, or in the Oval Office, the White House press pool accompanies the president to those kinds of places, and when he travels, accompanies him.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2026
Smoke from forest fires, crop burning and cooking are significant contributors to Africa's air pollution while Saharan dust travels as far as Europe.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
“We’re a compound of our travels, lives, and experiences.”
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026
“Eyhhh-dah,” he says, and his breath travels around the room, slips across Mama’s shoulders, then her waist, and it keeps going out and about so that everybody gets wrapped in its warm softness.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
Over two weeks, she traveled between Havana in the west and Baracoa, a city on the eastern edge of the island.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
She took some classes, traveled with friends and eventually began volunteering.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Instead, the strongest emission appears along the route traveled by the jet.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
The two leaders have met twice already this year, with Trump having traveled to Beijing in May.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
And with that thought a bad feeling came over me that started in my stomach and traveled out my legs and arms and ended up in my toes, my fingers, and even my tongue.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
The performance then travelled across cities in Europe, with only one show per location.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
She swam across a river into China at night with a smuggler's help, and travelled through Laos, Vietnam and Thailand before finally flying to South Korea.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
In rare access to Yemen's conflict zone, the BBC has travelled with government forces from Taiz through checkpoints to the line where the Houthi control ends and no man's land begins.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
We travelled with government forces from Taiz through checkpoints to the line where their control ends and no man's land begins, in order to see the fighting up close.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
We travelled for ten days before we were ensconced in Precambrian rock and vicious pine.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
The surface of our planet has a finite area, yet someone traveling along that surface never encounters a boundary where the ground suddenly ends.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
Sunday morning about three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, about 100 miles west of London, said the Metropolitan Police, the primary law-enforcement agency for the British capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
Police received a call shortly after midnight Sunday about three suspicious vehicles apparently traveling toward RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, near the southern Welsh border.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026
They’re “clinic shopping” in search of providers offering discounts or traveling to foreign countries, where IVF is cheaper.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
He was making a living with his traveling puppet show and the monkey fortuneteller.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
ZBC reported that the group was travelling from Gandami in Chikomba, where Chivayo and his wife were building a rural home, when the helicopter crashed at Kudenga Farm about 40 minutes after take-off.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The airline said it was another "on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight who diverted and landed the aircraft safely" and that it was suspending flights to Israel while an investigation took place.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
They will come up against South Africa in Gqeberha on 16 October before travelling to Harare to face a qualifier on 20 October.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The boy appeared to have been travelling with his mother and siblings.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
In traditional medicine ‘spirits’ did the work in the body that we would attribute to electrical impulses travelling along the nerves; these spirits were, we might say, barely material.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
