Word.ws English Dictionary

customs

/ˈkʌs.təmz/

customs noun: the duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods. Also the plural of custom.

Noun

customs (countable and uncountable, plural customs)

  1. (in plural) The duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.
    • Customs of £200 were due on all the wine we took back from France.
  2. (singular, uncountable) The government department or agency that is authorised to collect the taxes imposed on imported goods.
    • Customs stopped us in the airport for an inspection.
  3. The process of going through customs checks at a border checkpoint.
    • They usually don't care about customs, but she was clearly planning on selling most of it.
  4. The location at a border checkpoint where customs checks are carried out.
    • "You said someone from Cubetown was gonna meet us here at the airport?" "Yeah. We go through customs, then they'll meet us outside baggage claim."2022, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), 4922: Welcome To Canada

Also used as

customs is also the plural of custom.

customs is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of custom.

customs meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati

customs in Hindi

the duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods
सीमा शुल्क sīmā śulk, प्रशुल्क praśulk

customs in Urdu

the duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods
سَرْحَد حاصِل sarhad hāsil

customs in Bengali

রীতিনীতিসমূহ

customs in Gujarati

રિવાજો
More languagesFewer languages
customs in Nepali
रीतिथितिहरू, चलनहरू, रीति-रिवाजहरू
customs in Arabic
رُسُوم rusūm, جُمْرُك jumruk, رُسُوم جُمْرُكِيَّة rusūm jumrukiyya
customs in Malay
kastam
customs in Indonesian
bea
customs in Thai
ศุลกากร sǔn-lá-gaa-gɔɔn, ภาษีศุลกากร paa-sǐi-sǔn-lá-gaa-gɔɔn
customs in Myanmar
အကောက်ခွန် a.kaukhkwan

Forms of customs

pluralcustoms

Origin of customs

Plural of custom. Perhaps influenced by or taken as a corruption of customhouse, from Middle English custome hous.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from customs

Phrases with customs

Questions about customs

What does customs mean?
Customs means the duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.
What is customs in Hindi?
Customs in Hindi is सीमा शुल्क (sīmā śulk), प्रशुल्क (praśulk). See Customs meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is customs?
Customs is a noun.
How do you pronounce customs?
Customs is pronounced /ˈkʌs.təmz/.
What is the plural of customs?
The plural of customs is customs.

Words near customs in the dictionary

  1. customizers
  2. customizes
  3. customizing
  4. customless
  5. customly
  6. customs
  7. customs and excise
  8. customs declaration
  9. customs declarations
  10. customs duties
  11. customs duty

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: customs (page history and authors); customs (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); customs (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); customs (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-customs.ogg.

Cite this entry: “customs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/customs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.