Other forms: tracts
A tract is a large stretch of land, or a short pamphlet arguing a case. A tract of forest, a religious tract, a political tract.
The land sense means an extent without clear edges — a vast tract of moorland — and in America a tract is also a surveyed parcel, which is where tract housing comes from. The pamphlet sense is a short argumentative piece, usually religious or political, handed out rather than sold. In anatomy, a tract is a system running through the body: the digestive tract, the respiratory tract.
1nountractA large stretch of land.
“A huge tract of forest was cleared to build the new airport.”
2nounshortA short pamphlet arguing a case.
“In 1776 Thomas Paine published a famous tract arguing for American independence.”
3nounsystemA system running through the body.
“Food passes slowly through the digestive tract over a day or two.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
tract is an extent or a pamphlet.
Latin tractus means a drawing out, from trahere, to pull. Both senses are the same word: a tract of land is drawn out across space, and a tract of writing was a passage drawn out for reading.
Old English
traht
Middle English
tract
English, today
tract
Built from
From Middle English tract, tracte, traht (“a treatise, exposition, commentary”), from Old English traht, tract (“a treatise, exposition, commentary, text, passage”); and also from Middle English tract, tracte (“an expanse of space or time”); both from Latin tractus (“a haul, drawing, a drawing out”), the perfect passive participle of trahō. a doublet of trait.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA