trailer

American  

[trey-ler] / ˈtreɪ lər /

noun

• trailers
  plural

1. a large van or wagon drawn by an automobile, truck, or tractor, used especially in hauling freight by road.

2. Also called travel trailer.  a vehicle attached to an automobile and used as a mobile home or place of business, usually equipped with furniture, kitchen facilities, bathroom, etc.

3. a person or thing that trails.

4. a trailing plant.

5. a short promotional film composed of clips showing highlights of a movie due for release in the near future.

6. blank film at the end of a reel or strip of film, for winding off the film in a motion-picture camera or projector.

7. Ceramics. a can with a spout, used in slip trailing.

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trailer British  

/ ˈtreɪlə /

noun

1. a road vehicle, usually two-wheeled, towed by a motor vehicle: used for transporting boats, etc

2. the part of an articulated lorry that is drawn by the cab

3. a series of short extracts from a film, used to advertise it in a cinema or on television

4. a person or thing that trails

5. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): caravan.  a large enclosed vehicle capable of being pulled by a car or lorry and equipped to be lived in

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• trailers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of trailer

First recorded in 1580–90; trail + -er ¹

Explanation

A trailer is a wheeled vehicle that can't move on its own — it needs to be pulled by a car, truck, or other vehicle. Some bike-riding parents tow their small children behind them in bicycle trailers. The trailer you might put a boat on, hitching it to your truck, trails behind the vehicle that's pulling it. Another meaning of trailer is a film preview or advertisement that theaters show before a movie. It might seem strange to call it a trailer when it comes first, but the earliest trailers, at the start of the 20th century, came after the movie, trailing it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trailer trailers

The trailer then crashed into a Toyota parked on the right shoulder.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

She said the camp teaches children about forgiveness, so she and her husband put that lesson into practice by forgiving the people who took the trailer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

The farmer told him the trailer had been sitting padlocked and undisturbed in the corner of a field for years.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

My first reaction to the trailer for “Children of Blood and Bone,” Paramount’s lush adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling 2018 young adult novel, was that I buzzed with excitement.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026

Someone was pounding on the door of the trailer.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin

The Ravenswood City Elementary School District is now preparing for an enrollment surge, renovating a campus to avoid packing students into portable trailers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

Sure, it might be annoying that studios are trying to pass off overly enthusiastic five-star Letterboxd reviews as legitimate film criticism in marketing on posters and in trailers.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

Both of GTA 6's previous gameplay trailers currently have a total of roughly 447 million views combined.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026

Materials arrive for the day in a succession of 18-wheeler trucks, which are tipped by hydraulic lifts to empty the contents of their trailers onto the 28,000-square-foot tipping room floor.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

Slave-era cabins sat next to cinder-block homes and trailers, some with satellite dishes and porch swings, others rusted and half buried.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Related Words

• mobile home