different between flow vs traffic

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: fl?
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fl??/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /flo?/
• Homophones: floe, Flo
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle English flowen, from Old English fl?wan (“to flow”), from Proto-West Germanic *fl?an, from Proto-Germanic *fl?an? (“to flow”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl?w-, lengthened o-grade form of *plew- (“to fly, flow, run”). Compare float.

Noun

flow (countable and uncountable, plural flows)

1. A movement in people or things with a particular way in large numbers or amounts
2. The movement of a real or figurative fluid.
3. (mathematics) A formalization of the idea of the motion of particles in a fluid, as a group action of the real numbers on a set.

   The notion of flow is basic to the study of ordinary differential equations.

4. The rising movement of the tide.
5. Smoothness or continuity.

6. The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.

7. A flow pipe, carrying liquid away from a boiler or other central plant (compare with return pipe which returns fluid to central plant).
8. (psychology) A mental state characterized by concentration, focus and enjoyment of a given task.
9. The emission of blood during menstruation.

10. (rap music slang) The ability to skilfully rap along to a beat.

11. (computing) The sequence of steps taken in a piece of software to perform some action. (Usually preceded by an attributive such as login or search.)

Synonyms

• (continuity): See also Thesaurus:continuity

Antonyms

• (movement of the tide): ebb
• (continuity): See also Thesaurus:discontinuity

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• ebb and flow
• flowchart
• flowmeter
• freeflow
• single-flow

Translations

Further reading

• flow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Flow (psychology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

flow (third-person singular simple present flows, present participle flowing, simple past and past participle flowed)

1. (intransitive) To move as a fluid from one position to another.

   Rivers flow from springs and lakes.

   Tears flow from the eyes.

2. (intransitive) To proceed; to issue forth.

   Wealth flows from industry and economy.
3. (intransitive) To move or match smoothly, gracefully, or continuously.

   The writing is grammatically correct, but it just doesn't flow.

   • , Dedication

     Virgil […] is […] sweet and flowing in his hexameters.

4. (intransitive) To have or be in abundance; to abound, so as to run or flow over.

   • In that day […] the hills shall flow with milk.

   • 1845, John Wilson, The Genius and Character of Robert Burns

     the exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl

5. (intransitive) To hang loosely and wave.

   a flowing mantle; flowing locks

   • March 11, 1788, Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

     the imperial purple flowing in his train

6. (intransitive) To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb.

   The tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.
7. (transitive, computing) To arrange (text in a wordprocessor, etc.) so that it wraps neatly into a designated space; to reflow.
8. (transitive) To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.
9. (transitive) To cover with varnish.
10. (intransitive) To discharge excessive blood from the uterus.

Derived terms

• flowable, reflowable
• free-flowing
• overflow
• underflow

Translations

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Perhaps from Old Norse flói (“a large bay, firth”), see floe. Compare Scots flow (“peat-bog, marsh”), Icelandic flói (“marshy ground”).

Noun

flow (plural flows)

1. (Scotland) A morass or marsh.

References

• “flow, n.².”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000
• “flow, v., n.¹” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Anagrams

• Wolf, fowl, wolf

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?flow/, [?flow]

Noun

flow m (plural flows)

1. flow

English

Alternative forms

• traffick

Etymology

From Middle French trafique, traffique (“traffic”), from Italian traffico (“traffic”) from trafficare (“to carry on trade”). Potentially from Vulgar Latin *tr?nsfr?c?re (“to rub across”); Klein instead suggests the Italian has ultimate origin in Arabic ????????? (tafr?q, “distribution, dispersion”), reshaped to match the native prefix tra- (“trans-”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?f'?k, IPA^(key): /?t?æf?k/
• Rhymes: -æf?k

Noun

traffic (usually uncountable, plural traffics)

1. Moving pedestrians or vehicles, or the flux or passage thereof.

2. Commercial transportation or exchange of goods, or the movement of passengers or people.
3. Illegal trade or exchange of goods, often drugs.
4. Exchange or flux of information, messages or data, as in a computer or telephone network.
   1. In CB radio, formal written messages relayed on behalf of others.
   2. (advertising) The amount of attention paid to a particular printed page etc. in a publication.
      • 1950, Advertising & Selling (volume 43, part 2, page 53)

        Those fixed locations which are sold to advertisers become preferred according to the expected page traffic.

5. Commodities of the market.

   • You'll see a draggled damsel / From Billingsgate her fishy traffic bear.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

traffic (third-person singular simple present traffics, present participle trafficking, simple past and past participle trafficked)

1. (intransitive) To pass goods and commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money; to buy or sell goods

   Synonym: trade

2. (intransitive) To trade meanly or mercenarily; to bargain.
3. (transitive) To exchange in traffic; to effect by a bargain or for a consideration.

Derived terms

• trafficker
• trafficking

Translations

References

• traffic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.