traffic

/ˈtræfɪk/ noun [U]

Definition

› TRANSPORT all the vehicles that are on a road or all the aircraft, trains, or ships that are along a route or in an area at a particular time: air/rail/road traffic All commercial air traffic in the area has been cancelled. Rome has a video tracking system installed to help reduce traffic congestion. Banks study migration and traffic trends in deciding where to locate branches.

› TRANSPORT, COMMERCE people or goods transported by road, air, train, or ship, as a business: The loss of passenger and freight traffic to ferries and low cost airlines have forced Eurotunnel to produce yet another recovery programme.

› IT the amount of data moving between computers or systems at a particular time: We need a telecom infrastructure that can handle fast-growing internet traffic. They need to convert to broadband to cope with the growing volume of data and voice traffic.

› MARKETING the number of people buying goods or using a service at a particular time: Many casino companies produced solid earnings from heavy traffic during the New Year's holiday. The sites that are attracting traffic are professional blogs.

› the illegal trade of goods or people: the brutal trade in human traffictraffic in/of sth Most of the traffic of narcotics is not detected.

→ See also foot traffic, page traffic, store traffic

(Definition of traffic noun from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Focus on the pronunciation of traffic