Transportation

How to spell transportation

14 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce transportation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does transportation mean?

1. nounThe system or means of moving people or goods from one place to another.
2. nounThe former punishment of sending convicted criminals to a distant colony.

Transportation in a sentence

• The city invested heavily in public transportation to reduce traffic.

• The judge in the 1830s sentenced the thief to transportation for seven years.

• Shipping costs rose because fuel made transportation more expensive.

• Many early settlers in Australia arrived through penal transportation.

Where does transportation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from Latin roots: the prefix trans- means 'across' or 'over', and portare means 'to carry'. Combined as transportare, the Latin verb literally meant to carry something from one place to another. English absorbed the verb 'transport' through Old French in the late 1300s, and the noun 'transportation' was formed later, by the early 1500s, with the abstract suffix -ation that turns an action into a thing. The same portare root carries its load into many familiar relatives, including 'porter', 'import', 'export' and 'portable'. For a few centuries 'transportation' also carried a grim legal meaning: the punishment of shipping convicts overseas to colonies such as Australia, which is simply the original 'carrying across' applied to people against their will. The steady trans + port + ation structure is what makes the spelling reliable once you see the parts.

How the word is built

• trans- (across)
• port (carry, from Latin portare)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)