The difference between Trace and Track

When used as nouns, trace means an act of tracing, whereas track means a mark left by something that has passed along.

When used as verbs, trace means to follow the trail of, whereas track means to observe the (measured) state of a person or object over time.

check bellow for the other definitions of Trace and Track

  1. Trace as a noun:

    An act of tracing.

    Examples:

    "Your cell phone company can put a trace on your line."

  2. Trace as a noun:

    An enquiry sent out for a missing article, such as a letter or an express package.

  3. Trace as a noun:

    A mark left as a sign of passage of a person or animal.

  4. Trace as a noun:

    A very small amount.

    Examples:

    "All of our chocolates may contain traces of nuts."

  5. Trace as a noun (electronics):

    A current-carrying conductive pathway on a printed circuit board.

  6. Trace as a noun:

    An informal road or prominent path in an arid area.

  7. Trace as a noun:

    One of two straps, chains, or ropes of a harness, extending from the collar or breastplate to a whippletree attached to a vehicle or thing to be drawn; a tug.

  8. Trace as a noun (engineering):

    A connecting bar or rod, pivoted at each end to the end of another piece, for transmitting motion, especially from one plane to another; specifically, such a piece in an organ stop action to transmit motion from the trundle to the lever actuating the stop slider.

  9. Trace as a noun (fortification):

    The ground plan of a work or works.

  10. Trace as a noun:

    The intersection of a plane of projection, or an original plane, with a coordinate plane.

  11. Trace as a noun (mathematics):

    The sum of the diagonal elements of a square matrix.

  12. Trace as a noun (grammar):

    An empty category occupying a position in the syntactic structure from which something has been moved, used to explain constructions such as wh-movement and the passive.

  1. Trace as a verb (transitive):

    To follow the trail of.

    Examples:

    "rfquotek Cowper"

  2. Trace as a verb:

    To follow the history of.

  3. Trace as a verb (transitive):

    To draw or sketch lightly or with care.

    Examples:

    "He carefully traced the outlines of the old building before him."

  4. Trace as a verb (transitive):

    To copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines.

  5. Trace as a verb (transitive, obsolete):

    To copy; to imitate.

  6. Trace as a verb (intransitive, obsolete):

    To walk; to go; to travel.

  7. Trace as a verb (transitive, obsolete):

    To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.

  8. Trace as a verb:

    To follow the execution of the program by making it to stop after every instruction, or by making it print a message after every step.

  1. Track as a noun:

    A mark left by something that has passed along.

    Examples:

    "Follow the track of the ship."

    "Can you see any tracks in the snow?"

  2. Track as a noun:

    A mark or impression left by the foot, either of man or animal.

    Examples:

    "The fox tracks were still visible in the snow."

  3. Track as a noun:

    The entire lower surface of the foot; said of birds, etc.

  4. Track as a noun:

    A road or other similar beaten path.

    Examples:

    "Follow the track for a hundred metres."

  5. Track as a noun:

    Physical course; way.

    Examples:

    "Astronomers predicted the track of the comet."

  6. Track as a noun:

    A path or course laid out for a race, for exercise, etc.

    Examples:

    "The athletes ran round the track."

  7. Track as a noun:

    The direction and progress of someone or something; path.

  8. Track as a noun (railways):

    The way or rails along which a train moves.

    Examples:

    "They briefly closed the railway to remove debris found on the track."

  9. Track as a noun:

    A tract or area, such as of land.

  10. Track as a noun:

    Awareness of something, especially when arising from close monitoring.

  11. Track as a noun (automotive):

    The distance between two opposite wheels on a same axletree (also track width)

  12. Track as a noun (automotive):

    Short for caterpillar track.

  13. Track as a noun (cricket):

    The pitch.

  14. Track as a noun:

    Sound stored on a record.

  15. Track as a noun:

    The physical track on a record.

  16. Track as a noun (music):

    A song or other relatively short piece of music, on a record, separated from others by a short silence

    Examples:

    "My favourite track on the album is "Sunshine"."

  17. Track as a noun:

    A circular (never-ending) data storage unit on a side of magnetic or optical disk, divided into sectors.

  18. Track as a noun (uncountable, sports):

    The racing events of track and field; track and field in general.

    Examples:

    "I'm going to try out for track next week."

  19. Track as a noun:

    A session talk on a conference.

  1. Track as a verb (transitive):

    To continue observing over time. To observe the (measured) state of a person or object over time. To monitor the movement of a person or object. To match the movement or change of a person or object. To travel so that a moving object remains in shot. To move.

    Examples:

    "We will track the raven population over the next six months."

    "Agent Miles has been tracking the terrorist since Madrid."

    "My height tracks my father's at my age, so I might end up as tall as him."

    "The camera tracked the ball even as the field of play moved back and forth, keeping the action in shot the entire time."

    "The hurricane tracked further west than expected."

  2. Track as a verb (transitive):

    To follow the tracks of. To discover the location of a person or object. To leave in the form of tracks.

    Examples:

    "My uncle spent all day tracking the deer, whose hoofprints were clear in the mud."

    "I tracked Joe to his friend's bedroom, where he had spent the night."

    "In winter, my cat tracks mud all over the house."

  3. Track as a verb (transitive, or, intransitive):

    To create a musical recording (a track). To create music using tracker software.

    Examples:

    "Lil Kyle is gonna track with that DJ next week."

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