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 official trailer for the film adaptation of the African fantasy novel “Children of Blood and Bone” is making a splash online, and the director just revealed that she almost didn’t make the film.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

You have already seen a trailer for this movie.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

The “Avengers: Doomsday” trailer arrives in advance of this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

Grandmother Sara Folger sits in the kitchen of her single-wide trailer, the Rocky Mountains looming in the distance, and remembers the Bozeman, Montana she fell in love with decades ago.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

He kept on, trying to convince Major Peters to fly in from the north—perhaps that direction would help them see Johnston or the trailer.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

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

The horses will be taken in trailers to a corral in Modoc National Forest, where they’ll be readied for adoption.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 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

Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós also performed Hoppípolla, their 2005 song which has soundtracked countless wildlife programmes, as well as many others films, trailers, and advertisements.

From BBC ● May 8, 2026

When I’d visited the plant earlier that spring I watched steers being unloaded from trailers into corrals.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Related Words

• mobile home