Port

How to spell port

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce port

What does port mean?

1. nounA town or place with a harbour where ships load and unload.
2. nounThe left-hand side of a ship or aircraft when facing forward.
3. nounA sweet fortified wine, traditionally from Portugal, often served after dinner.
4. nounA socket or interface on a computer or device for connecting a cable or transferring data.

Port in a sentence

• The cargo ship reached port just after dawn.

• The captain ordered the crew to lean toward the port side.

• He poured a small glass of port to finish the meal.

• Plug the monitor cable into the spare port at the back.

• The ferry leaves the port every two hours.

• The lighthouse appeared off the port bow as they turned.

Where does port come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The harbour sense of port comes from the Latin portus, meaning a harbour or haven, a place where ships find shelter. That noun was closely related to porta, a gate or doorway, and both go back to an older root meaning a passage or way through, since a harbour was effectively the gateway between sea and land. The word entered Old English directly from Latin and was reinforced later through Old French, which kept the same spelling and meaning. The wine called port is unrelated by accident of geography: it takes its name from the Portuguese city of Oporto, from which the fortified wine was shipped. The verb sense, to carry, comes from a separate but related Latin word, portare, meaning to carry or bear, the same root behind transport and portable.

How the word is built

• port (from Latin portus: harbour, haven)