tract

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large area of land.

   They drove for hours across vast tracts of empty desert.

2. 2
   noun

   A system of connected organs or tissues in the body that carry out a function.

   Fibre is good for the digestive tract.

3. 3
   noun

   A short piece of writing on a subject, especially a religious or political one.

   He wrote a tract arguing against the new tax law.

From Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. Doublet of trait.

Topics