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
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travelling
present participle (especially British)
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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)
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traveling,
present participle
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travelling
present participle (especially British)
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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,
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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
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(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
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travelledsimple
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had traveledperfect
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had travelledperfect
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was travelingprogressive
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was travellingprogressive
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were travelingprogressive
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were travellingprogressive
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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:
Watch: What is it like to travel on Air Force One with Trump?
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Aeroplan members collect points through Air Canada flights and purchases made with co-branded credit cards, which they can then redeem in exchange for air travel or other goods.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
At the same time, Beijing also reportedly restricted travel for two of Manus' co-founders, preventing them from leaving China.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
U.S. presidents rarely travel without journalists, and it’s even rarer for administrations to conceal the president’s true location.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
I lower my voice so it’s soft enough to sound sincere but loud enough to travel through her open window.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
These bands are similar in concept to the electronic band structures that control how electricity travels through semiconductors.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
Today’s automobile knows where you go, when you go there and sometimes even who travels with you.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Limiting your travels due to potential racial stigmas is doing yourself a disservice.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Adelkoff did not respond to questions about how often she travels to Southern California for work and if she does, who pays for that travel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
I don’t, in fact, know what any of her travels looked like or where she actually went, because she wasn’t one to send postcards or keep in touch.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
The couple traveled with their daughter, who was 10 at the time, to Scotland, London and Paris.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Al Lenza’s parents traveled overseas three times after immigrating to the U.S. in 1961.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Participants navigated through a large virtual meadow and traveled toward a series of trees.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
Ruby had been at the zoo since May 2025 after she traveled from Seneca Park Zoo in New York.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
It traveled through my brain and down my arms and fingertips to my legs and toes.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Adam Hilton travelled from Manchester to Birmingham for Saturday's evening session.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Andy Smith, who has travelled the country with his band and stays in dozens of Travelodge hotels a year, said he had been given keys to other people's rooms recently.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
So Wang travelled to Guiyang, a city in the southwestern province of Guizhou, in the hope of finding his soulmate.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Hundreds of astronomers were among those who travelled to Alderney in the Channel Islands to view the eclipse on 11 August 1999.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
The sad news met her at at Vevay, for the heat had driven them from Nice in May, and they had travelled slowly to Switzerland, by way of Genoa and the Italian lakes.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
In 2000, Bill Clinton switched presidential planes at the last minute while traveling from India to Pakistan, using a decoy aircraft carrying Secret Service agents.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
That means countries that experience could be increasingly affected by smoke traveling long distances.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Its overall light field oscillated in the same direction, even though it contained photons of different colors traveling along many different paths.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
The author and the composer-pianist would go on to spend nine years together, alternately traveling around Europe and rejuvenating themselves at Sand’s beloved Nohant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
But now his neighbor—who knew a lot—was promising great things if Sancho went traveling with him.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
Like the other paid-for eclipse events, organisers have advised checking for ticket availability before travelling.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The incident has led to a debate online over how tolerant airlines should be to travelling families, and how strictly parents should enforce airline rules.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Traffic travelling westbound is being diverted onto the A326 towards Ashurst Bridge and then onto the A338 to the Ashley Heath roundabout to rejoin the A31.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Traffic travelling eastbound is being diverted onto the A338 towards Bournemouth.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
She could feel that the souls had gone travelling; there was a lightness not in the dormitory during the day.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
