Trot

How to spell trot

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce trot

What does trot mean?

1. verbTo move at a pace between a walk and a gallop, or to hurry along with short, quick steps.
2. nounA pace, faster than a walk, in which a horse moves its legs in diagonal pairs.

Trot in a sentence

• verb

  The pony began to trot around the paddock.

• noun

  The horse settled into a steady trot along the bridle path.

• verb

  She had to trot to keep up with her tall colleague on the platform.

• noun

  They crossed the field at a brisk trot to reach the gate before dark.

Where does trot come from?

Language of origin: French

Trot came into English in the 1300s from the Old French verb troter, meaning 'to go at a trot', which in turn was borrowed from a Germanic source related to Old High German trotton, 'to tread' or 'to run'. The underlying idea was a steady, springy tread of the feet, and the word was first applied to horses moving at a brisk, two-beat pace faster than a walk but slower than a gallop. From the horse it spread to people, so that to trot meant to hurry along on foot with short, quick steps. The noun for the gait itself followed naturally from the verb. Because the word is short and the vowel is simply 'o', it rarely causes spelling trouble, though the single 't' in the middle (rather than a doubled one) is worth noting.

How the word is built

• trot (single root; no prefix or suffix)