noun
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a copy made by tracing
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the act of making a trace
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a record made by an instrument
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tracing
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at trace 1, -ing 1
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:
Everyone I spoke with described the current process of tracing foodborne illnesses as laborious and slow and hampered by an absence of a unified approach.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
These include contact tracing, clinical assessment and precautionary testing.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
In a bid to boost tracing goods, the EU will make it mandatory from November 1, 2026 to provide reference details about the products.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
This response has relied on expert CDC staff stationed locally to provide proven tools for stopping Ebola outbreaks, including testing, contact tracing, and technical and epidemiological support.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
“A troika from Plinkst to the train station in Moscow,” she thought, tracing the journey back to England in her mind.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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An army of people would spend a week or two searching for tiger tracks and making tracings or plaster casts of the left hind foot.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026
The platform’s inputs are “imaging of any type—ECG, heart tracings, echocardiograms, blood tests, labs, genetic tests and, importantly, the electronic health record,” Dr. Mansi says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
I could ignore my past struggles, pretend they no longer matter, but indelible tracings remain.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2022
Under the glass surface on his desk, Manger keeps sketched tracings of the names of officers who died in the line of duty under his command.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2019
She’d been younger than Jojo at the time, but Stella remembered the furtive whispers and the tracings of fear on the grown-ups around her when it had happened.
From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper
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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.