travel
Americanverb (used without object)
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travels,
present (3rd person singular)
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traveled,
past participle, past
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travelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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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.
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to move or go from one place or point to another.
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to proceed or advance in any way.
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to go from place to place as a representative of a business firm.
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to associate or consort.
He travels in a wealthy crowd.
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Informal. to move with speed.
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to pass, or be transmitted, as light or sound.
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Basketball. (of a player in possession of the ball) to take more than two steps without dribbling or passing the ball.
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to move in a fixed course, as a piece of mechanism.
verb (used with object)
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travels,
present (3rd person singular)
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traveled,
past participle, past
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travelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
traveling,
present participle
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travelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to travel, journey, or pass through or over, as a country or road.
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to journey or traverse (a specified distance).
We traveled a hundred miles.
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to cause to journey; ship.
to travel logs downriver.
noun
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the act of traveling; journeying, especially to distant places.
to travel to other planets.
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travels,
-
to set out on one's travels.
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journeys as the subject of a written account or literary work.
a book of travels.
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such an account or work.
-
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the coming and going of persons or conveyances along a way of passage; traffic.
an increase in travel on state roads.
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Basketball. an instance of traveling with the ball.
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Machinery.
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the complete movement of a moving part, especially a reciprocating part, in one direction, or the distance traversed; stroke.
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length of stroke.
-
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movement or passage in general.
to reduce the travel of food from kitchen to table.
adjective
verb
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to go, move, or journey from one place to another
he travels to improve his mind
she travelled across France
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(tr) to go, move, or journey through or across (an area, region, etc)
he travelled the country
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to go, move, or cover a specified or unspecified distance
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to go from place to place as a salesman
to travel in textiles
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(esp of perishable goods) to withstand a journey
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(of light, sound, etc) to be transmitted or move
the sound travelled for miles
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to progress or advance
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basketball to take an excessive number of steps while holding the ball
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(of part of a mechanism) to move in a fixed predetermined path
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informal to move rapidly
that car certainly travels
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informal (often foll by with) to be in the company (of); associate
noun
-
-
the act of travelling
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( as modifier )
a travel brochure
-
-
(usually plural) a tour or journey
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the distance moved by a mechanical part, such as the stroke of a piston
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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
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pretravelnoun
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outtravelverb (used with object)
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nontravelingadjective
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nontravellingadjective
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travelableadjective
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untravelingadjective
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untravellingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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travelsimple
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travelssimple
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have traveledperfect
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have travelledperfect
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has traveledperfect
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has travelledperfect
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am travelingprogressive
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am travellingprogressive
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are travelingprogressive
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are travellingprogressive
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is travelingprogressive
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is travellingprogressive
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have been travelingperfect progressive
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have been travellingperfect progressive
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has been travelingperfect progressive
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has been travellingperfect progressive
Past
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traveledsimple
-
travelledsimple
-
had traveledperfect
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had travelledperfect
-
was travelingprogressive
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was travellingprogressive
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were travelingprogressive
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were travellingprogressive
-
had been travelingperfect progressive
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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"
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"Escaping to Freedom" and "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
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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:
The ride-hailing company is establishing a new chauffeuring brand, dubbed Alcove, that caters to demand for full days of executive travel between client meetings, conferences and flights, Chief Executive David Risher said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Being able to control where these vortices travel could therefore help scientists improve superconducting devices.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
The Dodgers not only have played more games than any other team the last two years, but their schedule has included grueling travel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them significantly harder to track and intercept.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Watching JB’s outrage, Jonah had almost forgotten that any of this time- travel talk had anything to do with him.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I figure we have a few big travels left in us before large expenditures stop.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
Under those conditions, the beam can initially have no spin, yet distinct regions with spinning behavior emerge as it travels through free space.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
At a Georgia location opened in 2024, food travels from an elevated kitchen to employees below on a conveyor system designed to deliver a meal every six seconds.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Without an Ebola test being taken at any point during his travels, it is hard to say exactly when he contracted the virus.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
As he travels farther away from the camp, he thinks of all he’s experienced.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Surkamp departed Pavlov’s Dog while recording its junior album and traveled to Seattle to further develop his musical talents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
During the early morning of October 11, the storm generated rippling disturbances that traveled into Earth's upper atmosphere.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
The 29-year-old student traveled to the shrine from the southeastern city of Vicosa and plans to vote for Lula.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
The EU’s top trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, traveled to Beijing earlier this month for talks with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
He eventually traveled with his wife and five children as a family singing group, bearing the message of God’s love throughout Europe and the Middle East.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"There are no more fish. They can't swim upstream," said fisherman Putta Muansaen, 67, who travelled overnight from northeastern Ubon Ratchathani province.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Dream rock band Fathom travelled roughly 700km across Australia to play nine shows, setting a new Guinness World Record for most concerts performed in 12 hours across multiple cities.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
At 17, she is alleged to have travelled to an IS-controlled area of Syria in late 2016 or early 2017, via Russia and Turkey.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
However, experts say the debris-flow is much smaller and travelled more slowly than the devastating flash floods in August.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
We travelled the long way home in silence.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
Caltrans said the deck replacement is necessary to preserve the structural integrity of the bridge and improve safety for maintenance workers, truck drivers and the traveling public.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Anyone can be vulnerable, including while traveling, or with a cross-lingual medical team.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
For a time, Quaid and Savoie were traveling back and forth between Los Angeles and Nashville, but following the 2025 California wildfires, they decided to pull the plug on life on the West Coast.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
He said the new restrictions apply to weapons traveling at 100 miles per hour or more that use SpaceX’s Starshield, which provides services for government and military users.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
However, you’ll recall that Clare was now traveling toward the heart of an open realm, and his speed was amplified by the pull of Progress.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Villa could still make light of it in Europe, though, with Viking also travelling to Birmingham in the league phase on 21 October.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
The Royal Navy said Rice went on to Malta where he was land-based for 12 weeks before travelling through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Dozens of images showed children travelling without age-appropriate restraints.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
AFP reporters travelling from Pensacola to nearby Destin saw relatively minor damage, with electricity workers repairing power lines along mostly clear roads.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
Apart from her arm travelling with the cigarette holder up to her lips on average every twelve seconds, she was still.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
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