Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb trace

8 senses of trace

Sense 1
trace, follow -- (follow, discover, or ascertain the course of development of something; "We must follow closely the economic development is Cuba" ; "trace the student's progress")
       => analyze, analyse, study, examine, canvass, canvas -- (consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning; "analyze a sonnet by Shakespeare"; "analyze the evidence in a criminal trial"; "analyze your real motives")

Sense 2
trace, draw, line, describe, delineate -- (make a mark or lines on a surface; "draw a line"; "trace the outline of a figure in the sand")
       => mark -- (make or leave a mark on; "the scouts marked the trail"; "ash marked the believers' foreheads")

Sense 3
trace, retrace -- (to go back over again; "we retraced the route we took last summer"; "trace your path")
       => return -- (go or come back to place, condition, or activity where one has been before; "return to your native land"; "the professor returned to his teaching position after serving as Dean")

Sense 4
hound, hunt, trace -- (pursue or chase relentlessly; "The hunters traced the deer into the woods"; "the detectives hounded the suspect until they found him")
       => chase, chase after, trail, tail, tag, give chase, dog, go after, track -- (go after with the intent to catch; "The policeman chased the mugger down the alley"; "the dog chased the rabbit")

Sense 5
trace -- (discover traces of; "She traced the circumstances of her birth")
       => detect, observe, find, discover, notice -- (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of; "She detected high levels of lead in her drinking water"; "We found traces of lead in the paint")

Sense 6
trace -- (make one's course or travel along a path; travel or pass over, around, or along; "The children traced along the edge of the dark forest"; "The women traced the pasture")
       => proceed, go forward, continue -- (move ahead; travel onward in time or space; "We proceeded towards Washington"; "She continued in the direction of the hills"; "We are moving ahead in time now")

Sense 7
trace -- (copy by following the lines of the original drawing on a transparent sheet placed upon it; make a tracing of; "trace a design"; "trace a pattern")
       => copy, re-create -- (make a replica of; "copy that drawing"; "re-create a picture by Rembrandt")

Sense 8
decipher, trace -- (read with difficulty; "Can you decipher this letter?"; "The archeologist traced the hieroglyphs")
       => read -- (interpret something that is written or printed; "read the advertisement"; "Have you read Salman Rushdie?")