Traveler

How to spell traveler

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce traveler

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does traveler mean?

1. nounA person who is making a journey or who journeys often.

Traveler in a sentence

• The seasoned traveler packed only a single carry-on bag.

• Every weary traveler at the airport was hoping the delayed flight would board soon.

Where does traveler come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Old French verb travailler, meaning 'to toil, labour, or suffer hardship', which in turn likely came from the Late Latin trepalium, the name of a three-staked instrument of torture. The grim association makes sense once you remember that journeying in the medieval world was genuinely exhausting and dangerous, so 'to travel' and 'to suffer painful effort' began as the same idea. English borrowed the verb in the 1300s, and the sense gradually softened from 'painful toil' to simply 'making a journey'. The agent noun, a person who travels, was formed by adding the familiar -er ending. The single-l spelling 'traveler' is the standard American form; British and Canadian writers double the l to make 'traveller', which is precisely the detail that trips people up when they switch between dialects.

How the word is built

• travel (to journey, from Old French travailler)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)

British and American spelling

Traveler is the American spelling. British English spells it traveller.