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 33 year old, who lives in Surrey, told BBC Your Voice that he uses his car to get around where he lives, and commutes on the train to London for work.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Robie O’Donnell took the train up to New York from the Washington, D.C., area to take his 12-year-old daughter to her first Jimmy Eat World show.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

“We were in our teens coming down to New York on the train or on the bus to audition for things, like ‘The Mickey Mouse Club,’” he told the outlet.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Some scrape publishers’ content to train their own AI models, others crawl sites to help answer user queries quickly or sell the content to other companies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

“Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he said.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Gatwick's price hike comes as the airport tries to get more people arriving by trains and buses.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

While some enjoyed the sunshine, the heat caused trains, schools and emergency services to buckle.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

"I don't know of any other center in the world that trains exorcists," Syquia said of the two-storey facility built largely with donations from local families of the previously afflicted.

From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026

With the country’s dramatic gender imbalance at the forefront, this documentary on ‘POV’ follows a dubious dating coach in Chongqing as he trains young men to help them find a mate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

Now I can see that those streaks of light are actually glowing trains, racing across the ocean floor.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

The Dartford college, in various guises, trained teachers until the 1980s.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

Distillation is a technique in which a smaller AI model is trained to mimic the outputs of a larger, more capable one.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

The most common complaint heard from high-tech corporate executives is that they can’t find enough trained candidates to fulfill their needs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at Futurum, noted that Kimi K3 was already trained before the issue emerged of how to serve the model at scale.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

“No one three years ago expected this to happen on the brokerage side. So no one’s been trained to deal with this. We’ve pretty much said, ‘We’re going out of business.’

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Darling-Hammond described a system straining to keep pace with a changing economy, in which students increasingly move in and out of college and blend academic coursework with hands-on career training.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

The report also found that the pilot lacked sufficient flight training and proper ground supervision.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Kerr posted videos of his training progress for months, part of his plan to promote the sport.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Many of them, scholars by training, found work as Greek teachers, and this wave of Greek instruction helped fuel both the Renaissance and, shortly after, the Reformation.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

Mr. Weiss said, "You should start training tomorrow."

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell

Related Words

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