tram
n. countablen. a long vehicle that runs on metal tracks in the middle of a street. It is powered by electricity and carries people around a city.
n. a passenger vehicle powered by electricity that travels on rails embedded in the surface of public roads.
The tram stops right outside the central station.
Many European cities use a tram network to reduce traffic congestion and provide reliable public transport in the city center.
While the historic tram remains a popular tourist attraction, the city has recently invested in a modern light-rail system to better connect the outlying suburbs with the commercial district.
Early 16th century, borrowed from Scots, probably from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus. Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame. The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him. The sense of a rail vehicle derives from tram-way, in its earliest sense meaning literally a log-covered road, but later applied to the earliest wooden railways, used for transporting coal in carts which came to be called "trams".
From Spanish trama, or French trame (“weft”). Doublet of trama.
Commonly used in British, Australian, and European English; the North American equivalent is 'streetcar' or 'trolley'.