Word Confusion: Track versus Tract

Plural for the noun: tracks
Gerund: tracking

Third person present verb: tracks
Past tense or past participle: tracked
Present participle: tracking

Plural: tracts

Prepared course or circuit

[Sports; also track and field] The general name for a particular group of sports in which people compete, including running, jumping, and throwing

Mark or line of marks left by a person, animal, or vehicle in passing

[Figurative] Course of action, a way of proceeding

Continuous line of rails on a railroad

Metal or plastic strip or rail from which a curtain or spotlight may be hung or fitted

Continuous articulated metal band around the wheels of a heavy vehicle

[Electronics] Continuous line of copper or other conductive material

[Nautical] Strip on the mast, boom, or deck of a yacht along which a slide attached to a sail can be moved, used to adjust the position of the sail

Section of a record, CD, or cassette containing one song or piece of music

Soundtrack of a film or video

Transverse distance between a vehicle’s wheels

Group in which schoolchildren of the same age and ability are taught

Verb, intransitive:
Follow a particular course ¹

Move in relation to the subject being filmed

Leave a trail of dirty footprints on a surface

Leave a trail of dirt, debris, or snow from one’s feet

Wheels run so that the back ones are exactly in the print of the front ones

[Electronics; of a tunable circuit or component] Vary in frequency in the same way as another circuit or component

Assign a student to a course of study according to ability

Verb, transitive:
Follow the course or trail of someone or something to find them or note their location ¹

[Figurative] Follow and note the course or progress of something

To follow the level of an interest rate

[Finance; Stock market] To follow the level of a particular share index

Tow a boat along a waterway from the bank ²

[Poetic/literary] Indefinitely large extent of something

Major passage in the body, a large bundle of nerve fibers, or other continuous elongated anatomical structure or region

Short treatise in pamphlet form, typically on a religious subject

Similar houses built on a large area of land ²

We’re going to the race track.

Track and field are divided into three events: track events, field events, and combined events.

He followed the tracks made by the wheels in the snow.

Defense budgeting and procurement do not move along different tracks from defense policy as a whole.

Use a curtain track to hang the beads.

Tanks use tracks to get over rough ground.

The CD has twelve tracks.

Verb, intransitive:
“The most important thing is to keep track, day by day, of what you are trying to control” (Carr).

The storm was tracking across the ground at 30 mph.

The camera eventually tracked away.

Little Mary tracked in mud from playing outside.

The kids are always tracking in snow in the winter.

The rear wheels follow the track of the front wheels only when the car is moving in a straight line.

“The final integrated setpoint signal continuously tracks the actual power/load until the main generator circuit breaker (GCB) is OFF” (Crecraft).

We start tracking in the third grade.

Verb, transitive:
Secondary radars can track the aircraft in flight.

He tracked Anna to her room.

Jamie tracked mud in from outside.

He thought he had better track this creature and kill it.

The mortgage deal will track the Bank of England base rate plus 0.75 per cent.

Tony is putting £500 a month into a savings account which tracks the FTSE All-Share index.

The Bourgogne canal used electrical boat propulsion tracking canal boats on a practical, commercial basis.

Your mouth is the beginning of your digestive tract.

She’s been handing out religious tracts all over the neighborhood.

After World War II, tract houses were erected to accommodate the huge influx of soldiers discharged from the military.

1. From the Old French trac, perhaps from the Low German or the Dutch trek meaning drawing, pull

   Today’s interpretation dates from the mid-16th century from the French traquer or directly from the noun.

2. Early 18th century and apparently from the Dutch trekken meaning to draw, pull, or travel.

1. Late Middle English in the sense of a duration or course (of time), from the Latin tractus meaning drawing, dragging from trahere which means draw, pull.

   Early 19th century — specifically a religious work

2. Late Middle English denoting a written work treating a particular topic, a possible abbreviation of Latin tractatus.

   The current sense dates from the early 19th century.