Traveller

How to spell traveller

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce traveller

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does traveller mean?

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

Traveller in a sentence

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

• Every traveller on the delayed flight was offered a meal voucher.

Where does traveller come from?

Language of origin: French

The word grows out of the verb 'travel', which English borrowed in the 1300s from the Old French 'travailler', meaning 'to toil' or 'to labour painfully'. That French verb is usually traced to the Late Latin 'trepalium', the name of a three-pronged instrument of torture, a vivid reminder that medieval journeys were exhausting and dangerous rather than relaxing. Over time the sense softened from 'to suffer hardship' to 'to make a journey', and adding the agent suffix '-er' gave us the person who makes that journey. In British and Canadian usage the final 'l' is doubled before the suffix, following the convention of doubling a final 'l' after a short vowel even when the stress falls earlier in the word; American spelling keeps a single 'l' in 'traveler'. The English word 'travail', still meaning painful effort, comes from exactly the same root and quietly preserves the older, harsher meaning.

How the word is built

• travel (to journey)
• -er (one who does); British and Canadian spelling doubles the final l

British and American spelling

Traveller is the British spelling. American English spells it traveler.