Skip to main content
PlainSpell

trot

/tɹɑt/noun, verb

trot is spelled T-R-O-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, trot means “A gait of a person or animal faster than a walk but slower than a run” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of trot is trots.

How many letters and syllables are in trot?

Letters4: T-R-O-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.6 times per million words; the 22,073rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
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 trot?

Trot appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd 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 trot?

  • US /tɹɑt/
  • UK /tɹɒt/

Trot 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: En-au-trot.ogg, En-au-Trot.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with trot?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as trot from its last stressed vowel (/ɑt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tort.

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 trot

  • trots plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • trotting participle, present
  • trotted participle, past

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

What does trot mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A gait of a person or animal faster than a walk but slower than a run.

  2. 2

    A brisk journey or progression.

    We often take the car and have a trot down to the beach.

  3. 3

    A gait of a four-legged animal between walk and canter, a diagonal gait (in which diagonally opposite pairs of legs move together).

    The mare started at a walk before breaking into a trot.

  4. 4

    A toddler.

  5. 5

    A moderately rapid dance.

  6. 6

    obsoleteA young animal.

  7. 7

    archaicderogatoryAn ugly old woman, a hag.

  8. 8

    AustraliaobsoleteA succession of heads thrown in a game of two-up.

  9. 9

    A genre of Korean pop music employing repetitive rhythm and vocal inflections.

  10. 10

    Alternative form of Trot (“Trotskyist”).

verb

  1. 1

    To move along briskly; specifically, to move at a pace between a walk and a run.

    I didn't want to miss my bus, so I trotted the last few hundred yards to the stop.

  2. 2

    To move at a gait between a walk and a canter.

  3. 3

    To cause to move, as a horse or other animal, in the pace called a trot; to cause to run without galloping or cantering.

  4. 4

    UKarchaicslangTo bid against (a person) at an auction, so as to raise the price of the goods.

noun

as Trot
  1. 1

    derogatoryslangA Trotskyite.

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

Trot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Spanishtrote (a gait of a person faster than a walk), foxtrot (moderately rapid dance), bruja, arpía (ugly old woman), racha (run of luck or fortune), trotar (walk rapidly)
Frenchtrotter (walk rapidly), trot (gait of an animal between walk and canter), aller au trot, aller le trot ((of a horse) move at a gait between a walk and…)
GermanTrab (gait of an animal between walk and canter), traben ((of a horse) move at a gait between a walk and…)
Portuguesetrote (gait of an animal between walk and canter), trotar ((of a horse) move at a gait between a walk and…)

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 trot come from?

From Middle English trotten, from Old French trotter, troter (“to go, trot”), from Medieval Latin *trottō, *trotō (“to go”), from Frankish *trottōn (“to go, run”), from Proto-Germanic *trudōną, *trudaną, *tradjaną (“to go, step, tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂- (“to run, escape”). Cognate with Old High German trottōn (“to run”), Modern German trotten (“to trot, plod”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (trudan, “to tread”), Old Norse troða (“to walk, tread”), Old English tredan (“to step, tread”). Doublet of trade and tread.

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

What to look up after trot