Tracks

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /tɹæks/

Definitions

1. More than one path or trail made for walking, running, or driving ; multiple separate recorded songs or pieces of music on a medium ; various marks or impressions left by a moving object or animal
2. Several routes or physical trails created for passage ; distinct sound recordings included on an album or tape ; numerous visible imprints left behind by a person, animal, or vehicle
3. A number of linear routes or courses established on the ground ; different individual pieces of music stored or distributed electronically or physically ; various imprints or traces produced as a result of movement over a surface

Etymology: The plural "tracks" is simply the plural of "track", so the story belongs to the singular. Its earliest English form was the Middle English "trak", borrowed from Old French "trac", meaning the mark of a horse's passage, a trail or trace. The French word's own origin is uncertain, but it probably came from a Germanic source, possibly Old Norse "traðk", meaning a trodden spot, or Middle Dutch "trec", meaning a line or series. That Germanic connection ties the word to "tread" and "trek", which share the same ancestry. A track is, at heart, a thing made by treading: a line of footprints pressed into the ground until a path forms. The sense of "routes for walking" grows directly from that idea of a worn line across land.

Synonyms: trails, paths, routes, courses, ways

Antonyms: blockages, obstacles, impediments, stops, breaks