tracks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of track.

   Investigators photographed the muddy tire tracks left at the scene.

   The album's final three tracks were recorded in a single night.

   Note

   Nothing irregular here: the plural simply adds -s, and its meaning follows whichever sense of track is in play. That can be marks left by something passing, prints of a foot, beaten paths, or courses laid out for a race. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb, so position decides. After the or an adjective, as in muddy tracks, it is the noun. After a singular subject, it is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of track.

   The app tracks your heart rate throughout the workout.

   A radar station near the coast tracks incoming aircraft around the clock.

   Note

   The -s form a singular subject calls for: she tracks, the radar tracks, the price tracks inflation. Most of its meanings take a direct object, because one tracks a person, a change, a moving target. Two can stand alone: the plain sense of moving, and a camera that tracks alongside its subject. To tell it from the plural noun, look for the subject in front of it.

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