bus
/bʌs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Ireland/bʊs/
bus noun: a motor vehicle for transporting large numbers of people along roads.
Noun
- A motor vehicle for transporting large numbers of people along roads.
- I'm on the bus.
- I can't read on the bus because I get sick.
- Synonyms:
- autobus, coach, loser cruiser, motorbus, motorcoach, omnibus, Shillibeer
- A coach, a bus used for long travels.
- Any motorized vehicle, such as a motorbike or car.
- “Excuse me,” said the stranger, who turned out to be a youth in motorcycling kit, “but could you give me a hand with my bus?”1927, Dorothy Sayers, Unnatural Death
- It had to be something with only two cylinders, if the whole ignition was to be put out of action with one needle: that is, a Morgan, a Belsize-Bradshaw, or a motorbike. He probably avoided the bike on the grounds of exposure to weather, and chose the Morgan as the next most handy and numerous...1932, Dorothy Sayers, Have His Carcase
- An electrical conductor or interface serving as a common connection for two or more circuits or components.
- Synonyms:
- busbar, digit trunk, electrical bus
- Part of a MIRV missile, having on-board motors used to deliver the warhead to a target.
- An ambulance.
- An aeroplane.
- A network topology with each computer connected to a single cable.
Verb (1)
bus (third-person singular simple present buses or busses, present participle busing or bussing, simple past and past participle bused or bussed)
- To transport via a motor bus.
- Because the new language school of Fu Jen University in the nearby city of Hsinchu was not yet completed, we were bused with other aspiring students of Chinese language to a farming village called Kuanhsi (Guanxi: West Pass), nestled against the tea growing hills of Hsinchu county.1999, Michael Saso, Velvet Bonds: The Chinese Family, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page ix
- Machine guns are the most effective form of ‘election campaigning’, but the occupiers appear to also be bussing in ‘voters’ from the Russian Federation, and ‘registering total strangers in the homes of people forced to flee after the Russian invasion.2024 March 13, Halya Coynash, “Russians with machine guns ensure occupied Ukraine ‘votes’ for Putin”, in Human Rights in Ukraine. The Information Portal of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group...
- To transport students to school, often to a more distant school for the purposes of achieving racial integration.
- But if you ask me to bus my children / I hope the cops take down your name1966, Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I'm a Liberal”, in Phils Ochs in Concert
- ...to strike down Detroit's federal court order to bus students across school district lines for the purpose of desegregation and therefore nullify many busing programs throughout the country.2008, Ashley R. Holm, Racial Differences in Student Engagement and Attainment: A Study of Topeka High School, 1939--1984, ProQuest, →ISBN, page 23
- To travel by bus.
Verb (2)
bus (third-person singular simple present buses or busses, present participle busing or bussing, simple past and past participle bused or bussed)
- To clear meal remains from.
- He bussed tables as the restaurant emptied out.
- He was hired to bus tables, but after a few incidents they moved him to the kitchen.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 13
- To work at clearing the remains of meals from tables or counters; to work as a busboy.
- He’s been bussing for minimum wage.
bus meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
bus in Hindi
- vehicle
- बस bas
- electrical conductor
- बस bas
bus in Tamil
- vehicle
- பேருந்து pēruntu, பஸ் pas
bus in Marathi
- vehicle
- बस bas
bus in Urdu
- vehicle
- بَس bas
- electrical conductor
- بَس bas
More languagesFewer languages
- bus in Bengali
- বাস baś
- bus in Telugu
- బస్సు bassu
- bus in Malayalam
- ബസ് basŭ
- bus in Kannada
- ಬಸ್ಸು bassu
- bus in Punjabi
- ਲਾਰੀ lārī, ਬੱਸ bassa
- bus in Gujarati
- બસ bas
- bus in Odia
- ବସ୍ bas
- bus in Sanskrit
- बसयान basayāna, लोकयानम् lokayānam
- bus in Sinhala
- බස් bas
- bus in Assamese
- বাচ bas
- bus in Nepali
- बस bas
- bus in Pashto
- بس bas, سروېس sarwes
- bus in Tagalog
- bus
- bus in Arabic
- حَافِلَة ḥāfila, بَاص bāṣ, أُتُوبِيس ʔotobīs, أُتُوبُوس ʔotobūs
- bus in Malay
- bas
- bus in Indonesian
- bus, bis, otobis
- bus in Thai
- รถบัส rót-bát, รถ rót, บัส bát, รถเมล์ rót-mee
- bus in Vietnamese
- xe buýt, ô tô buýt, buýt
- bus in Myanmar
- ဘတ်စ်ကား bhatcka:
Examples of bus in a sentence
- He probably avoided the bike on the grounds of exposure to weather, and chose the Morgan as the next most handy and numerous two-cylinder ’bus.1932, Dorothy Sayers, Have His Carcase:
- The ANC has accused the IFP of bussing in voters from other wards to vote during the recent Newcastle Municipality by-election won by the IFP.2024 March 14, Clive Ndou, “ANC set to open case against ‘ghost IFP voters’”, in The Witness, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2026:
Synonyms of bus
Forms of bus
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | buses |
| plural | busses |
| alternative form (archaic) | 'bus |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | buses |
| third-person singular present | busses |
| present participle | busing |
| present participle | bussing |
| past participle | bused |
| past | bused |
| past participle | bussed |
| past | bussed |
Origin of bus
Clipping of omnibus. Superseded earlier 'bus, where the apostrophe indicated a clipping. The shift in spelling likely reflects the fact that modern speakers no longer perceive this term as a clipping. The electrical sense is derived from figurative application of the automotive sense.
Back-formation from busboy.
Words formed from bus
- address bus
- airbus
- and then everyone on the bus clapped
- articulated bus
- baht bus
- banana bus
- bangbus
- battle bus
- battlebus
- bendy bus
- boo-boo bus
- bookbus
- Boris bus
- busable
- busbar
- bus bar
- bus boy
- bus bridge
- bus buddy
- bus bulb
- bus captain
- bus conductor
- bus conductress
- bus driver
- bus duct
- bus factor
- bus fare
- busful
- bus girl
- busgirl
- bus-holder
- busjacking
- bus-keeper
- bus lane
- busless
- buslike
- bus line
- busload
- busman
- bus mastering
- busmate
- bus mile
- bus ministry
- bus pass
- bus plunge
- bus rapid transit
- bus replacement service
- bus route
- bus shelter
- bussick
- bus stand
- bus station
- bus stop
- bus stop chicane
- bus-stop flight
- bussy
- bustaurant
- bus test
- bustitute
- bustitution
Phrases with bus
- bus war
- owl bus
- bus bars
- bus boys
- bus trap
- bus wars
- city bus
- data bus
- tour bus
- booze bus
- bus bulbs
- bus ducts
116 more phrasesFewer phrases
- bus fares
- bus girls
- bus lanes
- bus lines
- bus miles
- bus stops
- bus traps
- horse bus
- motor bus
- party bus
- short bus
- stage bus
- water bus
- bus kanaka
- bus passes
- bus routes
- bus stands
- cheese bus
- London bus
- school bus
- system bus
- bus bridges
- bus buddies
- bus drivers
- bus factors
- bus kanakas
- bus plunges
- chicken bus
- control bus
- shuttle bus
- sleeper bus
- transit bus
- trolley bus
- walking bus
- bus captains
- bus shelters
- bus stations
- bus topology
- commuter bus
- electric bus
- kneeling bus
- miss the bus
- open-top bus
- park the bus
- put on a bus
- splitter bus
- struggle bus
- catch the bus
- frontside bus
- parks the bus
- porcelain bus
- satellite bus
- bus conductors
- bus ministries
- bus topologies
- caught the bus
- electrical bus
- front-side bus
- missed the bus
- misses the bus
- parked the bus
- peripheral bus
- rubberneck bus
- spacecraft bus
- straddling bus
- catches the bus
- corporation bus
- missing the bus
- parking the bus
- catching the bus
- on the other bus
- bus conductresses
- bus stop chicanes
- double-decker bus
- floating bus stop
- reserved bus lane
- school bus yellow
- threw under a bus
- throw under a bus
- bus rapid transits
- floating bus stops
- public utility bus
- reserved bus lanes
- ride the short bus
- rode the short bus
- thrown under a bus
- throws under a bus
- walking school bus
- rides the short bus
- threw under the bus
- throw under the bus
- ridden the short bus
- riding the short bus
- throwing under a bus
- throws under the bus
- Universal Serial Bus
- Amish bus driver rule
- enterprise service bus
- throwing under the bus
- where does this bus go
- drive the porcelain bus
- drove the porcelain bus
- bus replacement services
- driven the porcelain bus
- drives the porcelain bus
- driving the porcelain bus
- like the back end of a bus
- national school bus chrome
- the wheels came off the bus
- the wheels fell off the bus
- park the beef bus in tuna town
- face like the back end of a bus
- how do I get to the bus station
- parks the beef bus in tuna town
- parked the beef bus in tuna town
- parking the beef bus in tuna town
Words that rhyme with bus
11 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about bus
- What does bus mean?
- Bus means a motor vehicle for transporting large numbers of people along roads.
- What is bus in Hindi?
- Bus in Hindi is बस (bas). See Bus meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use bus in a sentence?
- He probably avoided the bike on the grounds of exposure to weather, and chose the Morgan as the next most handy and numerous two-cylinder ’bus.
- What part of speech is bus?
- Bus can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bus?
- Bus is pronounced /bʌs/.
- What is the plural of bus?
- The plural of bus is buses.
Words near bus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bus (page history and authors); बस (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-Buss.ogg, en-us-bus.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.