Meaning & use
travel
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To go from one place to another, usually over a considerable distance or for a trip.
Grammar: No object; often followed by a place or a direction: travel to Peru, travel north.
Patterns
- travel to somewhere
- travel by something
- travel with someone
We travel to my grandparents' village every summer.
She prefers to travel by train because she can read on the way.
He traveled alone through South America for six months.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cover a distance or move along a path at a certain speed, as a vehicle, sound or light does.
Grammar: Can take a distance as an object: the car traveled 50 miles; or stand alone: sound travels fast.
Patterns
- travel a distance
- travel at a speed
Light travels much faster than sound.
The bus had traveled only a few miles when it broke down.
News travels quickly in a small town.
noununcountable
The activity of going from place to place, especially to far-away places.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: say air travel, not an air travel; use trip or journey for one occasion.
Patterns
- travel to somewhere
- a travel something
Travel broadens the mind, my aunt always says.
Foreign travel was too expensive for most families then.
Her job involves a lot of travel.
Word forms
| third person singular | travels |
|---|---|
| past tense | traveled (British: travelled) |
| past participle | traveled (British: travelled) |
| -ing form | traveling (British: travelling) |
Common combinations
- travel abroad
- Many students travel abroad after finishing school.
- travel light
- I always travel light, with just a small backpack.
- travel widely
- The author traveled widely before writing her first book.
- business travel
- Business travel has dropped since more meetings moved online.
- travel insurance
- Buy travel insurance before you book the flights.
- travel plans
- Our travel plans changed when the airline canceled the flight.
Synonyms and how they differ
- journey
- As a verb it is more literary and suggests a long, purposeful trip, whereas travel is the ordinary word.
- tour
- Tour implies visiting several places for pleasure or sightseeing, while travel need not involve sightseeing.
- commute
- Commute is only for the regular trip between home and work, which travel does not specify.
- voyage
- Voyage suggests a long trip by sea or through space and sounds grander than travel.
Opposites
Word family
- traveler noun
- a person who travels
- travelogue noun
- a film or talk about someone's journeys
- traveled adjective
- having visited many places, as in a well-traveled man
- travels noun
- journeys to several places, often over a long time
Commonly confused: travel or trip? travel or travail?
travel vs trip
A trip is one particular outing with a start and an end, while travel is the general activity. Say we took a trip, not we took a travel.
travel vs travail
Travail is a formal word for painful effort and only looks similar.
Practice
Which sentence uses travel correctly?
Choose one answer.
Travel as a noun is uncountable, so air travel works. A travel, many travels in that sense, and the travel to the airport all treat it as one countable trip, where trip or journey is needed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “travel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.