tram
/tɹam/noun, verb
tram is spelled T-R-A-M: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tram means “A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tram is trams.
How many letters and syllables are in tram?
| Letters | 4: T-R-A-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 2.9 times per million words; the 15,798th 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; 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 tram?
Tram appears 2.9 times per million words in written English, the 15,798th 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 tram?
- /tɹæm/
- UK /tɹam/
- /tɹɛm/
Tram has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-tram.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with tram?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as tram (/am/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mart.
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 tram
- trams plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- tramming participle, present
- trammed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tram mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
AustraliaUKA passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).
- 2
A similar vehicle for carrying materials.
- 3
USA people mover.
- 4
USAn aerial cable car.
- 5
USA train with wheels that runs on a road; a trackless train.
- 6
UKA car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).
- 7
obsoleteThe shaft of a cart.
- 8
obsoleteOne of the rails of a tramway.
- 9
A silk thread formed of two or more threads twisted together, used especially for the weft, or cross threads, of the best quality of velvets and silk goods.
verb
- 1
To operate, or conduct the business of, a tramway.
- 2
To travel by tram.
- 3
To transport (material) by tram.
- 4
USTo align a component in mechanical engineering or metalworking, particularly the spindle of a mill or drill press, as historically accomplished using a trammel.
- 5
To weave in this manner.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tram in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense passenger vehicle:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tramway, tram |
| German | Bim, Straßenbahn, S-Bahn, Tram, Trambahn, Tramway |
| Portuguese | elétrico, bonde |
| Spanish | tranvía |
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 tram come from?
Early 16th century, borrowed from Scots, probably from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic *drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus. Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame. The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).