trek synonym meaning

Synonyms of trek

• as in to travel
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Thesaurus Definition of trek

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• peregrination
• commutation

Thesaurus Definition of trek  (Entry 2 of 2)

• peregrinate
• road - trip
• knock (about)
• perambulate

Thesaurus Entries Near trek

Cite this entry.

“Trek.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trek. Accessed 19 May. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on trek

Nglish: Translation of trek for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of trek for Arabic Speakers

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noun as in long journey

Strongest matches

Strong matches

• peregrination

verb as in journey

Weak matches

• be on the move
• be on the trail
• hit the road

Discover More

Example sentences.

Writer Leath Tonino devised a 200-mile solo desert trek, following the path of the legendary cartographer who literally put these contentious canyons on the map.

So, we just made the decision to continue on with the trek, but to do it as conscientiously and as low-impact as possible.

He says that the team was able to show microbes would be able to survive the trek from Mars to Earth without shielding from the dangers of space if they clump together.

During their latest trek they checked these survey stakes and determined the speed with which the ice masses creep.

Until now, measuring these effects has required arduous treks through trackless swamps.

During his trek, Brinsley twice passed within a block of a police stationhouse and he almost certainly saw cops along the way.

The audience--tout Hollywood--stands to cheer his slow and painful trek from the wings to the table.

Overall, few travelers have made the trek into the desert of Sudan to see these architectural wonders.

In fact, some feminist critics have pointed to a long history of objectification in Star Trek.

Horst Ulrich, a 72-year-old German on a trek with a group of friends, watched four Nepali guides swept away by an avalanche.

If his partner's impedimentia was not too bulky, the ancient model was ready for another trek to the hills.

The mountaineers, indeed, suffered less than the townsfolk as being more accustomed than they to conditions of trek and battle.

The cool morning air made it bearable for man and beast to trek.

By the third day of their trek southward along the Great River, the soles of Redbird's moccasins had worn through.

Once more was there a cracking of whips, and the oxen, straightening out along the trek-touw (Note 3), moved reluctantly on.

Related Words

Words related to trek are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word trek . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

verb as in travel across area

• journey over
• pass through

noun as in migration

• colonization
• displacement
• expatriation
• homesteading
• reestablishment
• resettlement
• transplanting

noun as in journey

• pleasure trip

noun as in journey; people on a journey

• exploration
• undertaking

Viewing 5 / 51 related words

On this page you'll find 81 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to trek, such as: expedition, hike, odyssey, trip, footslog, and hegira.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Related Words and Phrases

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Definition of 'trek'

trek in British English

Trek in american english, examples of 'trek' in a sentence trek, cobuild collocations trek, trends of trek.

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Related terms of trek

• arduous trek
• mountain trek
• the Great Trek
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Definition of trek noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• They reached the refugee camp after an arduous two-day trek across the mountains.
• on a/​the trek

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• It's a long trek into town.

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What does the noun trek mean?

There are four meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun trek . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun trek ?

How is the noun trek pronounced, british english, u.s. english, south african english, where does the noun trek come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun trek is in the 1840s.

OED's earliest evidence for trek is from 1849, in the writing of Edward Napier, army officer and author.

trek is a borrowing from Dutch.

Etymons: Dutch trek .

Nearby entries

• tregetour, n. 1340–
• tregetry, n. c1380–1540
• tregetting, n. c1440
• trehala, n. 1862–
• trehalase, n. 1893–
• trehalose, n. 1862–
• treillage, n. 1698–
• treillaged, adj. 1810–
• treille, n. 1780–
• treillis, n. 1706–
• trek, n. 1849–
• trek, v. 1850–
• trek Boer, n. 1835–
• trek-bok, n. 1824–
• trek-cart, n. 1928–
• trek chain, n. 1878–
• trek-farmer, n. 1912–
• trek fever, n. 1897–
• trekker, n. 1851–
• trekkie, n. 1888–
• trekking, n. & adj. 1850–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for trek, n..

trek, n. was first published in 1914; not yet revised.

trek, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into trek, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1914)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View trek, n. in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for trek, n.

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Citation details

Factsheet for trek, n., browse entry.

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What do teens mean when they say ‘sigma’?

What the sigma?

Some know “sigma” as the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet but it’s also teen slang for a cool dude.

According to Know Your Meme , sigma is “referring to a supposed classification for men who are successful and popular, but also silent and rebellious.” Sigma males are “considered ‘equal’ to Alphas on the hierarchy but live outside of the hierarchy by choice,” reads the website.

Urban Dictionary adds that sigma “is what all 10 year olds think they are.” As reported by British GQ , the word “sigma” was born from the misogynistic “manosphere.”

What does ‘sigma’ mean?

Philip Lindsay , a special education math teacher in Payson, Arizona, broke down “Sigma” on TikTok.

“There’s this group of people who have this hierarchy for males — there’s ‘alpha’ and there’s ‘sigma,’” Lindsay said in a video . “This is a group of people that mainly ranks males based on looks, success, that whole thing.”

Lindsay added, “So they have the ‘alpha’ which is the most successful, the best looking and then they have ‘sigma’ which is the same thing as an alpha but humbler.”

Another definition for “sigma” says Lindsay, is “the best.”

Read more about teen slang:

• What is ‘sus’? Decoding the latest slang word
• Why does your kid call you 'bruh'?
• Why are teens ‘mewing’ and what is the trend all about?

“Kids use Alpha and Sigma interchangeably,” Lindsay tells TODAY.com . “They don’t make much of a distinction between being humble or not, even though that’s (technically) the definition.”

Lindsay clarifies, “Beta is an insult. (It means) ‘You’re inferior to me and I’m better than you.'”

‘What the sigma?’

According to Lindsay, “What the sigma?” is traced to a SpongeBob SquarePants internet meme (which a spokesperson of Nickelodeon tells TODAY.com is fan-created).

In the video , Squidward and SpongeBob, characters from the cartoon show “SpongeBob Squarepants,” watch footage of a waffle cone dipped in chocolate syrup and sprinkles.

“That looks insane,” said SpongeBob in the video.

“That also looks very unhealthy,” replied Squidward, stating, “Erm, what the sigma?”

Lindsay said “sigma” is from the same culture as  mewing and looksmaxing , trends — according to the New York Times — that claim to help teens look better.

One example of “Looksmaxing” is “ Mewing ”: teens flatten their tongues to the tops of their mouths, to supposedly eliminate a double chin, a method that American Association of Orthodontists  says is not scientific. The teen version of “mewing” is a “hush” symbol and touching the jawline to mean, “I can’t talk.”

Lindsay tells TODAY.com that “sigma” is a classroom trend.

“They say, ‘Are you sigma Mr. Lindsay?’ or ‘Yo, that’s so sigma’ when I do something that pleases them like (assigning) math problems (to solve) with an online game,” he says, adding that in his classroom, “Sigma is going strong.”

Elise Solé is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles and covers parenting for TODAY Parents. She was previously a news editor at Yahoo and has also worked at Marie Claire and Women's Health. Her bylines have appeared in Shondaland, SheKnows, Happify and more.

Screen Rant

Star trek’s redshirt has a real world meaning.

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TNG Ended Star Trek’s Redshirt Joke For Good

Ds9 gave star trek's red shirt death problem a greater meaning, 9 versions of the borg in star trek.

• Star Trek popularized the term redshirt for disposable characters in The Original Series, which often unceremoniously killed security officers.
• The term redshirt also exists in real life for college athletes who are kept out of competition for a year to extend eligibility.
• The redshirt trope ended in Star Trek: The Next Generation when the color red switched to command, making it one of the safest colors for officers.

Star Trek fans may only associate the term redshirt with the unluckiest officers of the Starship Enterprise, but the word also has a real-world meaning that has nothing to do with Star Trek. The term redshirt became associated with Star Trek thanks to the tendency of Star Trek: The Original Series to kill off unnamed security officers. These unfortunate souls were always wearing red Starfleet uniforms, and numerous redshirts were killed in 1960s Star Trek . While every Trek show since Star Trek: The Next Generation has done away with the redshirt trope, the term had already made its way into the pop culture lexicon.

As the USS Enterprise's security officers were often the first ones to face any dangers, it makes sense that more of them would be killed in the line of duty. The term redshirt became a Star Trek trope because these officers were often killed unceremoniously and then promptly forgotten about. Once it became a pattern, these redshirts were doomed from the start, and numerous movies, television shows, and other forms of media have referenced or joked about Star Trek's redshirt trope. However, the term redshirt has another real-world meaning familiar to college sports fans.

Star Trek is infamously known for killing off officers wearing red, but Star Trek: The Next Generation actually put an end to this trope in 1987.

Redshirt’s Meaning In Star Trek & The Real World

The term 'redshirt' was coined before star trek.

In Star Trek: The Original Series, a redshirt was one of the usually unnamed red-shirt-wearing security officers who was killed during a mission. These Starfleet officers would often be members of a landing party, and their deaths would serve to raise the stakes for the rest of the crew. Over the course of TOS , 55 crew members were killed, 24 of whom were wearing red shirts, and so the term came to refer to disposable characters who were killed off soon after being introduced. The 1999 film Galaxy Quest pokes fun at Star Trek 's trope , as does the novel Redshirts by John Scalzi and the video game Redshirt.

The first known usage of the term redshirts in regard to college athletes was in 1955, eleven years before Star Trek premiered in 1966.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redshirt is "a college athlete who is kept out of varsity competition for a year in order to extend eligibility." In other words, a redshirt freshman can spend their first academic year practicing with the team and playing in a game or two, before taking on a larger role in subsequent years. This allows the player to have five years of eligibility and continue to play on the team as a fifth-year senior. Also according to Merriam-Webster, the term redshirt was derived from the red jerseys often worn by these players during scrimmages against the regular players.

Killing off a minor character in Deep Space Nine season 1 fixed Star Trek's redshirt problem and ensured that death would have meaning on DS9.

Star Trek’s Redshirt Trope Ended After The Original Series

Star Trek: The Next Generation changed the colors of Starfleet uniforms. Red went from security to command, and command gold became operations. This switch brought an end to the redshirt trope in Star Trek, although the term retained its meaning in popular culture. From TNG on, officers on the command track have been wearing red, making it one of the safest colors for a Starfleet officer to wear. Star Trek was never going to kill off Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) or Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), after all.

With the deaths of Star Trek characters like David Marcus (Merritt Butrick) in Star Trek III: The Seach for Spock and Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, death began to have more of an impact and real consequences for the other characters. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine took this even further with its darker tone and Dominion War storyline. Even Star Trek shows set before TOS have mostly done away with the trope . Shows like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds rarely treat characters as disposable, and which characters live or die has nothing to do with the color of their uniforms. Still, the trope persists, even though Star Trek characters wearing red haven't actually been more likely to die since 1987.

Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series follows the exploits of the crew of the USS Enterprise. On a five-year mission to explore uncharted space, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) must trust his crew - Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Forest DeKelley), Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Sulu (George Takei) - with his life. Facing previously undiscovered life forms and civilizations and representing humanity among the stars on behalf of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise regularly comes up against impossible odds and diplomatic dilemmas.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

What does 'shipping' mean? Unpacking the romance-focused internet slang

When you hear the word "ship," the image of a large boat probably comes to mind.

But if you're involved in a fandom, you might have a different definition for "ship." Even if you're a casual fan of certain movies, television shows, books or celebrities, you might partake in "shipping" without realizing it.

It's time for a history lesson in fandom culture and a primer on what "ship" means.

What does 'ship' mean?

According to Merriam-Webster, " to ship " is "to wishfully regard (specific people or fictional characters) as being or having the potential to become romantically involved with one another." As a noun, "ship" refers to the pairing of said people or characters.

The term dates back to an "X-Files" fan forum in 1996 , Merriam-Webster reports. Users who were fans of the romantic pairing of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder referred to themselves as "relationshippers." This was later shortened to "shippers."

In a similar sense, "ship" is shortened from "relationship." Therefore, "shipping" refers to creating a relationship between two individuals. This can be applied to books, movies, television shows or anything that has a fandom.

The slang was popularized in the early 2000s, but the action of "shipping" predates it by several decades. One of the earliest ship pairings is Captain Kirk and Spock from "Star Trek" in the 1960s.

Fans might ship their favorite characters based on small interactions or subtext, regardless of the media's canon , or true events. Some fans may make nicknames for their ships by combining the characters' names.

What does 'OTP' mean? Breaking down the fandom term, slang

How to use 'ship' 

Here is how to use "ship" in a conversation:

• "I ship Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. "
• "Do you ship Janine and Gregory on ' Abbott Elementary '?"
• "What's your favorite ' Bridgerton ' ship?"

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USA TODAY is exploring the questions you and others ask every day. From " What are angel numbers? " to " When did *NSYNC break up? " to " What is my love language? " − we're striving to find answers to the most common questions you ask every day. Head to our  Just Curious  section to see what else we can answer.

What is the meaning of the word 'eclipse'? Here is its origin ahead of April 8 event.

Where does a solar eclipse get its name? Why is it called an "eclipse"?

As Michiganders prepare for the viewing of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 - which is crossing a large swath of the United States, including a small sliver of southeast Michigan - let's delve into the etymology of the word "eclipse."

Why is it called an 'eclipse'?

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The term "eclipse" traces its roots to the Latin  “eclipsis,”  drawn from the Greek  “ekleipsis.”  That Greek noun is related to the verb  “ekleipein,”  consisting of  “ek”  (meaning “from”) and  “leipein”  (meaning “to leave”). So literally,  eclipse  means “to fail to appear” or “to abandon an accustomed place.”

The sun and moon are hidden from sight in lunar and solar eclipses.

More: Detroit's last total solar eclipse was more than 200 years ago: What the city was like then

The Greeks built on Babylonian astronomy to make their observations of eclipses, and the word  “ekleipsis”  appears as early as the fifth century B.C. in Thucydides’s history of the Peloponnesian War, according to the Wall Street Journal .

The noun and verb “eclipse” came to be used more metaphorically by the late 16th century, to describe someone or something being surpassed or overshadowed.

In other customs, early writings show evidence of people trying to make sense of eclipses around the world. In Chinese the term for eclipse is "shi," which translates to "eat," and correlates with the mythological explanation of a dragon eating the sun.

Eclipses also have inspired fear and awe among civilizations throughout history , from the Aztecs to the ancient Hindus. They're also associated with some major religious events, including the darkness that accompanied Jesus’ crucifixion in Christianity and, in Islam, the passing of the Prophet Muhammad’s son, Ibrahim.

What is a solar eclipse?

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth’s orbits , creating an eclipse of Earth’s view of the sun.

The path of totality is the predicted path of the eclipse from Mexico, through the U.S. across Texas and North America to the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The expected duration of totality is around 4 hours, starting around 11:07 a.m. PDT and ending around 5:16 NDT.

States  in the path of totality  for the 2024 solar eclipse include Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

In Michigan, a small sliver of southeast Monroe County is in the path of totality, meaning the sky will get dark as the moon crosses the sun.

USA TODAY contributed.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What is the meaning of the word 'eclipse'? Here is its origin ahead of April 8 event.

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Meaning of trek – Learner’s Dictionary

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(Definition of trek from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of trek

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Word of the Day

a computer program designed to have a conversation with a human being, usually over the internet

Searching out and tracking down: talking about finding or discovering things

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