train

American  

[treyn] / treɪn /

noun

• trains
  plural

1. Railroads. a self-propelled, connected group of rolling stock.

2. a line or procession of persons, vehicles, animals, etc., traveling together.

3. Military. an aggregation of vehicles, animals, and personnel accompanying an army to carry supplies, baggage, ammunition, etc.

   Synonyms:

   convoy

4. a series or row of objects or parts.

5. Machinery. a connected set of three or more rotating elements, usually gears, through which force is transmitted, or motion or torque changed.

6. order, especially proper order.

   Matters were in good train.

   Synonyms:

   arrangement, array

7. something that is drawn along; a trailing part.

8. an elongated part of a skirt or robe trailing behind on the ground.

9. a trail or stream of something from a moving object.

10. a line or succession of persons or things following one after the other.

    Synonyms:

    column, file

11. a body of followers or attendants; retinue.

12. a series of proceedings, events, ideas, etc.

13. the series of results or circumstances following or proceeding from an event, action, etc.; aftermath.

    Disease came in the train of war.

14. a succession of connected ideas; a course of reasoning.

    to lose one's train of thought.

15. Astronomy.

    1. the trace of light created by a meteor falling through the earth's atmosphere.

    2. the tail of a comet.

16. a line of combustible material, as gunpowder, for leading fire to an explosive charge.

17. Physics. a succession of wave fronts, oscillations, or the like.

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verb (used with object)

• trains,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trained,
  past participle,  past
• training
  present participle

1. to develop or form the habits, thoughts, or behavior of (a child or other person) by discipline and instruction.

   to train an unruly boy.

2. to make proficient by instruction and practice, as in some art, profession, or work.

   to train soldiers.

   Synonyms:

   school, practice, drill, exercise

3. to make (a person) fit by proper exercise, diet, practice, etc., as for an athletic performance.

4. to discipline and instruct (an animal), as in the performance of tasks or tricks.

5. to treat or manipulate so as to bring into some desired form, position, direction, etc..

   to train one's hair to stay down.

6. Horticulture. to bring (a plant, branch, etc.) into a particular shape or position, by bending, pruning, or the like.

7. to bring to bear on some object; point, aim, or direct, as a firearm, camera, telescope, or eye.

8. Archaic. to entice; allure.

verb (used without object)

• trains,
  present (3rd person singular)
• trained,
  past participle,  past
• training
  present participle

1. to give the discipline and instruction, drill, practice, etc., designed to impart proficiency or efficiency.

2. to undergo discipline and instruction, drill, etc.

3. to get oneself into condition for an athletic performance through exercise, diet, practice, etc.

4. to travel or go by train.

   to train to New York.

train British  

/ treɪn /

verb

1. (tr) to guide or teach (to do something), as by subjecting to various exercises or experiences

   to train a man to fight

2. (tr) to control or guide towards a specific goal

   to train a plant up a wall

3. (intr) to do exercises and prepare for a specific purpose

   the athlete trained for the Olympics

4. (tr) to improve or curb by subjecting to discipline

   to train the mind

5. (tr) to focus or bring to bear (on something)

   to train a telescope on the moon

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noun

1. 1. a line of coaches or wagons coupled together and drawn by a railway locomotive

   2. ( as modifier )

      a train ferry

2. a sequence or series, as of events, thoughts, etc

   a train of disasters

3. a procession of people, vehicles, etc, travelling together, such as one carrying supplies of ammunition or equipment in support of a military operation

4. a series of interacting parts through which motion is transmitted

   a train of gears

5. a fuse or line of gunpowder to an explosive charge, etc

6. something drawn along, such as the long back section of a dress that trails along the floor behind the wearer

7. a retinue or suite

8. proper order or course

train Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing train

• gravy train

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Synonym Usage

See teach.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• minitrain
  noun
• mistrain
  verb
• overtrain
  verb
• supertrain
  verb
• pretrain
  verb (used with object)
• undertrain
  verb (used with object)
• half-trained
  adjective
• nontrained
  adjective
• self-trained
  adjective
• semitrained
  adjective
• trainable
  adjective
• trainless
  adjective
• undertrained
  adjective
• untrained
  adjective
• well-trained
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• trains
  plural

Participles

• training
  present
• trained
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• train
  simple
• trains
  simple
• have trained
  perfect
• has trained
  perfect
• am training
  progressive
• are training
  progressive
• is training
  progressive
• have been training
  perfect progressive
• has been training
  perfect progressive

Past

• trained
  simple
• had trained
  perfect
• was training
  progressive
• were training
  progressive
• had been training
  perfect progressive

Future

• will train
  simple
• will have trained
  perfect
• will be training
  progressive
• will have been training
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of train

First 1350–1400; (verb) late Middle English traynyn “to pull or drag in the rear,” from Middle French trainer, Old French tra(h)iner, from unattested Vulgar Latin tragīnāre, derivative of unrecorded tragīna “something dragged or drawn” (compare Medieval Latin tragīna “carriage”), derivative of unattested tragere “to pull,” for Latin trahere; (noun) Middle English train, traine, from Old French tra(h)in (masculine) “series of people, animals, or things,” tra(h)ine (feminine) “something dragged behind,” both derivative of tra(h)iner

Explanation

To train means to teach a skill. If you train your cat to use the toilet, your family will be amazed. You can train animals to perform in a circus or roll over, and you can train people to do things like program computers or use an espresso machine. When you instruct someone how to do a task, you train him or her. Other meanings of the word train? A locomotive, like the train that takes people from New York City to Boston or a long piece of material attached to the back of a dress, like the train on a wedding dress.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

train trains trained training

The incident saw 10 wagons of the 25-wagon train derail, causing 446,000 litres of fuel to spill, and about 300 people had to leave the area due to the blaze.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Castañeda’s daughter, Christine Valenciana, associate professor emeritus of elementary and bilingual education at Cal State Fullerton, said her mother was forced to leave Los Angeles by train when she was 9 years old.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

The class action lawsuit has been brought on behalf of millions of streamers who use Twitch, alleging its parent company Amazon used their videos to train AI without their permission or proper compensation.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

But still awaiting a connection to the country’s main high-speed train corridor, it can feel like terra incognita, even to Italians.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

For an hour or more the train switched back and forth.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

The operator said it plans to run a "very limited number of trains" from around 18:00 BST on Sunday evening, and a full service on Monday.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

“Because we lose the ability to exert force quickly as we get older. Plyometrics — involving motor control, coordination, agility and reactivity — trains quick responses.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Before its services can run, Virgin still needs to procure a rolling stock of trains for the route, gain access to other rail networks and obtain safety approvals from British and European Union authorities.

From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026

And much of it ends up on the curb in loose plastic bags—before getting shipped out of the city altogether, on barges and then trains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

It seemed my whole life was composed of these disjointed fractions of time, hanging around in one public place and then another, as if I were waiting for trains that never came.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

New controllers have been hired -- 92 in 2025 and 77 in 2026 -- but each newcomer must be trained for five years.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

Prof. Roche said the findings show for the first time that consuming yeast beta-glucan in the diet is enough to trigger trained immunity by altering bone marrow stem cells.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026

In this approach intended for piloting robots, artificial-intelligence models are trained on videogames and simulations, rather than literature, code and images.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Authorities have recommended measures including providing safer boats and life jackets, dredging waterways, deploying water guards at jetties and terminals, and ensuring boat operators are properly trained and licensed.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

"Sam, I do wish you would be trained," his mother said one day as she was changing his diaper.

From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry

It claims Twitch breached its contract with users by using that content as AI training data for Amazon's models without obtaining their permission.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

“One day of training was equivalent to one week of training,” he added.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

Twitch's chief product officer Mike Minton previously said he did not know if users' data had been scraped for training before it gave people the opportunity to opt-out.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said that even in training camp, the team’s veteran players were gasping at Miles’s plays.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Directly in front of us was what looked like a smaller version of Professor Watt’s gym, complete with a training mat.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Related Words

• care for
• develop
• discipline
• educate
• equip
• improve
• instruct
• qualify
• study
• teach
• tutor
• work out