streetcar

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Streetcar refers to a passenger vehicle that runs on rails laid into ordinary city streets and stops often along local routes. Tram is the usual British and international term for the same kind of vehicle, while streetcar is the standard North American label in transport writing and many city systems. Trolley is also common in North American everyday speech, although it can sometimes refer to a bus that takes power from overhead wires. Light rail usually means a newer and larger system with longer routes, bigger cars, and more stretches on dedicated track. In Toronto you might say 'We took the streetcar downtown,' but in Melbourne you would normally say 'We caught the tram.'

Common collocations

Etymology

Streetcar is a transparent compound built from street and car. In the nineteenth century, car could mean a railway carriage or another wheeled passenger vehicle. As electric rail vehicles became common in North American cities, speakers added street to distinguish the cars that ran in ordinary roads from larger railway cars on longer-distance lines. The term became especially common in American and Canadian English, while British English kept tram as the everyday word for the same kind of vehicle.