traiettoria

trajectory, path

noun trah-yeht-TOH-ryah Rare

Origin: From New Latin trajectoria, from Latin traicere (to throw across).

Also means

course, career arc

Usage Note

Traiettoria is used both in physics (the path of a projectile) and figuratively for a person's career or life path — la traiettoria politica di un leader (a leader's political trajectory). The plural is regular: traiettorie. It is a false cognate trap: while it looks like 'trajectory,' learners sometimes mispronounce the stressed syllable — stress falls on -toh- (TOH-ryah).

Examples

"La traiettoria del missile fu calcolata con precisione."

Natural Translation

The missile's trajectory was calculated with precision.

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