Tracing means following or copying the outline of something, usually by placing a thin piece of paper over it and drawing along the lines you can see through. When you trace a picture, you're creating a copy by carefully following its edges and shapes with your pencil.

Artists and students use tracing to learn how shapes work or to transfer a drawing from one place to another. If you're designing a poster and want the same image in two spots, tracing saves time. Young children trace their hands to make turkey drawings at Thanksgiving, following the outline of their fingers spread on paper.

The word also means to follow a path or track something back to where it started. Detectives trace clues to solve a mystery, following each piece of evidence back to its source. Scientists might trace a disease outbreak to find where it began. When you trace your family history, you're following your ancestors backward through time.

Sometimes people use tracing paper, a special thin, semi-transparent paper made specifically for this purpose. And without a trace means something disappeared so completely that no evidence remains: “The cookies vanished without a trace.”