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PlainSpell

travel

/ˈtɹævəl/verb, noun

travel is spelled T-R-A-V-E-L: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, travel means “To be on a journey, often for pleasure or business and with luggage; to go from one place to another” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in travel?

Letters6: T-R-A-V-E-L
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing100 times per million words; the 1,076th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is travel?

Travel appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th 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 travel?

  • /ˈtɹævəl/

Travel has 2 syllables (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: En-us-travel.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with travel

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

travel vs travelled0 B

Also written: travail, traveled, travelled.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with travel?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as travel.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: varlet.

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 travel

  • travels present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • traveling US, participle, present
  • travelling UK, participle, present
  • traveled US, participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • travelled UK, participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does travel mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To be on a journey, often for pleasure or business and with luggage; to go from one place to another.

    John seems to spend as much time travelling as he does in the office.

  2. 2

    To pass from one place to another; to move or transmit.

    Soundwaves can travel through water.

  3. 3

    To move illegally by walking or running without dribbling the ball.

  4. 4

    To travel throughout (a place).

    I’ve travelled the world.

  5. 5

    To force to journey.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo labour; to travail.

noun

  1. 1

    The act of traveling; passage from place to place.

    I like travel, but it’s always too tiring.

  2. 2

    A series of journeys.

    I’m off on my travels around France again.

  3. 3

    An account of one's travels.

    He released his travels in 1900, two years after returning from Africa.

  4. 4

    The activity or traffic along a route or through a given point.

  5. 5

    The working motion of a piece of machinery; the length of a mechanical stroke.

    There was a lot of travel in the handle, because the tool was out of adjustment.

  6. 6

    obsoleteLabour; parturition; travail.

  7. 7

    Distance that a keyboard's key moves vertically when depressed.

    The keys have great travel.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Travel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvoyager (be on a journey), transmettre, propager (pass from here to there; transmit), voyage (act of traveling)
Germanreisen (be on a journey), sich fortbewegen, sich fortpflanzen, sich ausbreiten (pass from here to there; transmit), Reise (act of traveling), bereisen (travel throughout)
Portugueseviajar (be on a journey), viagem (act of traveling)
Spanishviajar, recorrer, rolear, transitar, movilizarse (be on a journey), viaje (act of traveling)

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 travel come from?

From Middle English travelen (“to make a laborious journey, travel”) from Middle Scots travailen (“to toil, work, travel”), alteration of Middle English travaillen (“to toil, work”), from Old French travailler (“to trouble, suffer, be worn out”). See the doublets travail and travois. Compare typologically routine << Latin rupta via. Note the inverse semantic vectors: travel moves from a subjective state (toil) to an objective action (journey), while routine moves from an objective object (beaten path) to a subjective pattern (habit).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after travel