Passport

How to spell passport

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce passport

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does passport mean?

1. nounAn official government document that identifies the holder as a citizen and permits international travel.

Passport in a sentence

• The border officer scanned her passport before waving the car through.

• He renewed his passport months before the holiday to avoid any delays.

Where does passport come from?

Language of origin: French

Passport comes from the French passeport, a compound formed from passer, meaning 'to pass' or 'to go through', and port, meaning a harbour or gate, which itself descends from the Latin portus, 'harbour'. The literal idea was a document granting permission to pass through a port or gateway, and the word entered English in the 1400s when sea travel and walled towns made such written permits a practical necessity. Originally it referred broadly to authority to leave or enter a port, only later narrowing to the personal identity booklet issued by a government. The 'port' element is the same root that gives us 'porter', 'portal', and 'import', all carrying the sense of a doorway or a place of passage. Knowing that it is genuinely 'pass' plus 'port', not a doubled or altered ending, helps fix the spelling, since the join sits cleanly between the two whole words.

How the word is built

• pass (to go through)
• port (from Latin portus: harbour, gate)