Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tracer |
TracerNoun1. An investigator who is employed to find missing persons or missing goods. 2. An instrument used to make tracings. 3. (radiology) any radioactive isotope introduced into the body to study metabolism or other biological processes. 4. Ammunition whose flight can be observed by a trail of smoke. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | A computer program that performs a check on another computer program by exhibiting the sequence in which the instructions are executed and usually the results of executing them. Source: European Union. (references) |
Economics | A request upon a transportation line to trace a shipment for the purpose of locating its whereabouts, expediting its movement or establishing delivery. (references) |
Electrical Engineering | A means of identifying polarity. Two common types are ridges along the axis of the insulation perceptible to the touch, and bands of contrasting colour in braid or wind. Source: European Union. (references) |
Health | A substance (such as a radioisotope) used in imaging procedures. (references) |
Mechanical Engineering | That part of a tracer-controlled copying attachment which scans the pattern and directs the servomechanism. Source: European Union. (references) |
| A device, attached to the tool slide, which enables the variations of a copying template profile to be reproduced by the tool on the workpiece. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Medicine | A stable or radioactive nuclide that can be detected at several stages of a biological, chemical, or other process. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | An element or compound that has been made radioactive so that it can be followed (traced) easily in industrial and biological processes. Radiation emitted by the tracer (radioisotope) pinpoints its location. Abbrev., tcr. (references) |
Occupations | Traces skips (debtors who change residence without notifying creditors to evade payment of bills) for creditors or other concerned parties: Searches city and telephone directories, and street listings, and inquires at post office. Interviews, telephones, or writes former neighbors, stores, friends, relatives, and former employers to elicit information pertaining to whereabouts of skips. Follows up each lead and prepares report of investigation to creditor. May trace individuals for purposes of serving legal papers. May contact debtors by mail or phone to attempt collection of money owed [COLLECTION CLERK (clerical)]. (references) |
| Lays out or traces lettering and designs on surface of marble and granite to prepare stone for cutting, using any of following methods: Positions stone on bench, stool, or floor with aid of other workers, hoist, or crane. (1) Lays paper bearing lettering and design on stone, centers paper and traces outline with stylus. (2) Lays out lettering with drafting instruments and sketches designs freehand, working to specifications. (3) Centers and pastes paper bearing lettering and design on face of stone. (references) | |
Slang | Noun. Source: To Trace- to follow a path or line. Definition: When using extremely rapidly firing guns, ever few rounds would be tracers. These rounds would leave a visible path by which the shooter could more accurately aim the gun. Context: . Social Source: Military Personnel. Source: Compiled by The University of Oregon. (additional references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: TracerSynonym: tracer bullet (n). (additional references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Your mother's a tracer! (Chasing Amy; writing credit: Kevin Smith) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Dick Tracer (1989) Skip Tracer (1977) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | An E-1B "Tracer" airborne early warning aircraft leaves the carrier's port catapult, during flight operations at sea in November 1967. Five S-2 "Tracker" anti-submarine aircraft are parked on the flight deck's starboard side. Credit: NAVY. |  | LVTs head for the invasion beaches at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, as cruisers bombard in the background, 22 April 1944. The ship firing tracer shells in the right center is USS Boise (CL-47). Just ahead of her is USS Phoenix (CL-46). Photographed by Tech4 Henry C. Manger. Credit: NAVY. |
 | A Japanese "Zeke" airplane dives toward USS Vincennes (CL-64), during an attack on Task Group 58.1 off Okinawa on 6 April 1945. Note anti-aircraft gun smoke and flame trailing aft of the cruiser. Photographed from USS Miami (CL-89). Tracer shells from Miami and from the destroyer in the center are also visible. This plane crashed into the sea astern of Vincennes. Credit: NAVY. |  | Production. Magnesium. A helmeted welder is busily engaged in his part of the war effort at Basic Magnesium's huge plant in the southern Nevada desert. The plant is turning out great quantities of magnesium for aircraft and tracer bullet manufacturers. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | A third imaging technique called positron emission tomography (PET) provides a picture of brain activity rather than structure by measuring levels of injected glucose (sugar) that has been labelled with a radioactive tracer. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Tracer" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.95% of the time. "Tracer" is used about 95 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.95% | 94 | 33,845 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.05% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 95 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "tracer": isotopic tracer ♦ tracer ammunition ♦ tracer analysis ♦ tracer bullet ♦ tracer composition ♦ tracer element ♦ tracer isotope ♦ tracer projectile ♦ tracer round ♦ tracer shell. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "tracer": contact-tracer. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
ip tracer | 248 | dynamic ip tracer | 11 |
tracer | 226 | isp tracer | 11 |
mercury tracer | 89 | radioactive tracer | 10 |
skip tracer | 76 | bullet tracer | 10 |
advanced registry tracer | 39 | neo tracer | 9 |
email tracer | 27 | schick tracer | 9 |
phone tracer | 20 | ip neo tracer | 9 |
ip address tracer | 19 | signal tracer | 9 |
script tracer | 19 | tracer technology | 9 |
circuit tracer | 19 | people tracer | 9 |
hud tracer | 18 | third party tracer | 9 |
tracer wire | 17 | registry tracer | 9 |
tracer ammunition | 17 | ping tracer | 9 |
tracer projector | 15 | 1997 mercury tracer | 8 |
curve tracer | 15 | mercury tracer part | 8 |
phone number tracer | 15 | light tracer | 8 |
party program third tracer | 14 | 1988 mercury tracer | 8 |
intense tracer | 13 | e mail tracer | 8 |
1995 mercury tracer | 12 | internet tracer | 8 |
free ip tracer | 12 | auto tracer | 8 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "tracer"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | plumb gjurmëlënës (tracer bullet), kopjues (imitator, scribe), kërkues (applicant, beseeching, exacting, exactor, invocatory, loud, particular, petitioner, postulant, prospector, searcher, solicitor, suitor), hetim (enquiry, inquiry, investigation, perquisition, probe, scan, study), gjurmues (investigator). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كشاف (prospector, scout, searchlight), مقتفي أثر, مرسمة, الذخيرة الخطاطة, رسام (drawer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | уред за издирване на повреди, радиоактивен изотоп, трасиращ състав, трасиращ снаряд, автор на скица, автор на план, белязан атом. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 追踪者. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | svítící střela, stopař (hitchhiker, sleuthhound, stalker), slídil (bloodhound, nosey parker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | tracer, traceprogram (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), sporstof (micronutrient), sporingsstof, sporingsprogram (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), skabelonføler (follower), polaritetsindikator, målemærke (stylus), kopistift (copying sensor, copying stylus, tracer finger), føler (contour follower, detecting device, feeler, probe, sensor), føleliste, cursorkryds (stylus). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | trasseur, tracer, traceerdraad, taststift (follower), spanningszoeker, gemerkte verbinding (labelled compound, marked compound), indexvezel, indicator (Bellwether, indicator, radiation indicator), klikstof, kopieerstift (follower), kopieertasterstift (copying sensor, copying stylus, tracer finger), kruisdraad (stylus), meetmerk (stylus), foutenzoekroutine (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), spanningsaanwijzer, veiligheidsrand, speurprogramma (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), speurverbinding (labelled compound, marked compound), stuurschuif (contour follower, feeler), veiligheidslijst, merkstof. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | نقشه کش (Draftsman, Plotter), طراح (Designer, Draftsman, Drawer, Sketcher), جستجوکننده (Searcher, Snoop), رسام , ردیاب . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | tuntopuikko (copying sensor, copying stylus, tracer finger), tuntokärki (follower), tuntoelin (tactile organ), tunnistuskuitu, merkkiaine (marker), kopiokärki (copying sensor, copying stylus, follower, tracer finger), jäljitysohjelma (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), jäljitinohjelma (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), indikaattori (indicator), ilmaisin (indicator). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | traceur (trailer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | technischer Zeichner, Indikator (indicator), Ablaufverfolger. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κινητό χείλος, στυλό φωτός (light pen, stylus), ιχνηλάτησ (tracker), ιχνηλάτης (tracker), ιχνηθέτης, ιχνογράφοσ (sketcher), πρόγραμμα ιχνηλάτησης (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), χαράκτησ (carver, die sinker, etcher, inscriber), ακόλουθος μηχανισμού αντιγραφής (follower), ανιχνευτής (pathfinder, scanner, scout, sensor), αντιγραφέασ (copier, copyist, transcriber), Aνιχνευτής στην παραγωγή υαλονήματος. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | עוקב (consecutive, consequent, follower, sequential), ותב (routing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | nyomozó (detective, inquisitional, investigator, investigatory, plainclothes man, researcher, tracker), elõrajzoló (scriber). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | perunut. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | tracciante (labelled compound, marked compound), traccia (foil, footprint, furrow, groove, hint, lane, Mark, outline, rut, shadow, sign, smear, spoor, streak, tang, tinge, trace, track, trail, vestige), tastatore (contour follower, feeler), sostanza tracciante, routine di stampa percorso (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), programma tracciatore (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), programma di stampa percorso (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), palpatore (contour follower, feeler), indicatore delle correnti, indicatore (Gage, gauge, indicator, milepost, pointer), esame a punti (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), elemento tracciante, costola mobile. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | トルコ帽 (fez, house trailer, sweat pants, sweat shirt, sweatshirt, tolerance, Tolstoy, toreador, toreador pants, tornado, torso, tortilla, trace, tracing, tracing paper, trade, trade money, trade show, trade union, trademark, trade-off, trader, trading, trading company, trail bike, trailer, trailer bus, trailer house, train, trainer, training, training camp, training pants, training shoes, training wear, training wizard, tray, tread, trekker, tremolo, trench coat, trenching, troubadour, very good). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | トレーサー . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 예광탄. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | bullad lorgagh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | acertray traçador (marker), rotina de investigação (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), programa de investigação (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), pesquisador (digger, investigative, investigatory, pathfinder, research, searching, survey taker), palpador copiador (copying sensor, copying stylus, tracer finger), palpador (copying sensor, copying stylus, tracer finger), marcador (billiard-marker, scorer), indicador da corrente, fio traçador, fio marcador, desenhador (designer, draftsman, Draughtsman, drawer, stylist), descobridor (discoverer, finder, pathfinder), decalcador (pathfinder), bordo de sensibilidade, apalpador (feeler). (various references) trasor. (various references) чертежник-копировщик, трассирующий снаряд, меченый атом (label), исследователь (boffin, discoverer, explorer, investigator, researcher, researchist). (various references) trejser, tragač (tracker, trailer), traženje (hunt, hunting, looking for, pursuit, quest, request, requirement, search, solicitation), punkcija, istraživač (exploiter, explorer, inquisitor, investigator, researcher, researchist). (various references) trazador (plotter). (various references) spårprogram (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), spårningsprogram (trace program, tracing program, tracing routine), spårningsämne, spårljus, spårare, spårämne, mätstift (stylus), mätmärke (bench mark, stylus), märktråd, följarfinger (contour follower, feeler). (various references) terzi ruleti, teknik ressam (drafter, draftsman, draughtsman), kopya makinesi (copying machine), izli mermi (tracer bullet, tracer shell), izleyen (after, consequent, consequential, following, onlooking, the following), iz bırakan şey, araştırma yazısı (tracer composition). (various references) копіювальник (copyist), агент з розшукування загублених речей, дослідник (discoverer, examiner, explorer, inquisitor, investigator, pathfinder, researcher). (various references) cái vạch người vạch. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "tracer": traceried, traceries, tracers, tracery. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "tracer": radiotracer. (additional references) | |
Words containing "tracer": intracerebral, intracerebrally, radiotracers. (additional references) | |
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"Tracer" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: eracer, tacer, Tarace, tarce, tarrer, tarver, thricer, Trabert, tracea, Tracerco, tracey, tracier, tracit, traec, trager, trake, traker, traper, trasher, trater, traver, trece, treker, Trencern, Treyer, Triberg, tricor, Triscari, trocar, Troger, trucer. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "tracer" (pronounced trā"ser) |
| 4 | -r ā" s er | bracer, eraser, racer. |
| 3 | -ā" s er | chaser, facer, lacer, pacer, spacer. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: carter, crater. | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-r-r-t" | |
-1 letter: carer, caret, carte, cater, crate, racer, rater, react, recta, tarre, terra, trace. | |
-2 letters: acre, care, carr, cart, cate, race, rare, rate, rear, tace, tare, tear. | |
-3 letters: ace, act, arc, are, art, ate, car, cat, ear, eat, era, err, eta, rat, rec, ret, tae, tar, tea. | |
-4 letters: ae, ar, at, er, et, re, ta. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-r-r-t" | |
+1 letter: carters, caterer, charter, cirrate, craters, creator, erratic, reactor, rechart, recrate, refract, retrace, retrack, retract, terrace, tracers, tracery, tracker. | |
+2 letters: arcature, capturer, carburet, catbrier, caterers, cavorter, charters, craftier, cratered, creators, creature, cremator, criteria, erratics, fracture, reactors, recanter, recarpet, recharts, recrated, recrates, recreant, recreate, redactor, refracts, retraced, retraces, retracks, retracts, retroact, terraced, terraces, tetrarch, trackers, traducer. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 72 61 63 65 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)- .-. .- -.-. . .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01110010 01100001 01100011 01100101 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T r a c e r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 0072 0061 0063 0065 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)548467697184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
