trait
/tɹeɪt/noun
trait is spelled T-R-A-I-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, trait means “An identifying characteristic, habit or trend” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of trait is traits.
How many letters and syllables are in trait?
| Letters | 5: T-R-A-I-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.9 times per million words; the 11,373rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is trait?
Trait appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce trait?
- /tɹeɪt/
- /tɹeɪ/
Trait has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-trait.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with trait?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as trait.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ratti.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of trait
- traits plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does trait mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An identifying characteristic, habit or trend.
inherited traits and acquired traits
- 2
An uninstantiable collection of methods that provides functionality to a class by using the class’s own interface.
Traits are somewhat between an interface and a mixin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Trait in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense an identifying characteristic, habit or trend:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | trait |
| German | Eigenschaft, Zug |
| Portuguese | traço, peculiaridade |
| Spanish | rasgo, característica, carácter |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does trait come from?
Borrowed from Middle French trait (“line, feature”), from Latin tractus (“drawing, pulling”), from Latin trahō. Doublet of tract.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).