passenger

Syllables: pas·sen·gerUK/ˈpæs.ɪn.d͡ʒə//ˈpæs.ɪn.d͡ʒɚ/

passenger noun: one who rides or travels in a vehicle, but who does not operate it and is not a member of the crew.

Noun

passenger (plural passengers)

One who rides or travels in a vehicle, but who does not operate it and is not a member of the crew.
- It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC
- A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)
Synonyms:

inmate
(UK, informal) Somebody in a team who does not do their fair share of the work.
A young hunting bird that can fly and is taken while it is still in its first year.
(obsolete) A migratory bird, a bird of passage.
- Meander, thou my faithfull Counſellor,
  Declare the cauſe of my conceiued griefe,
  Which is (God knowes) about that Tamburlaine:
  That like a Foxe in midſt of harueſt time,
  Dooth pray vppon my flockes of Passengers: […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
(obsolete) A passer-by; a wayfarer.
- These are my mates, that make their wills their law, / Have some unhappy passenger in chase.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- [The boys] have taken possession of the turnpike road to play the before-mentioned games, to the serious inconvenience of the passengers, one of whom, a woman, was yesterday knocked down by a nurr which struck her in the head.Quoted in 1905, William Carew Hazlitt, Faiths and Folklore (volume 2, page 595)
(obsolete) A ship carrying passengers, a ferryboat.
A moth, Dysgonia algira
Any of the individual warheads of a MIRV missile.

Verb

passenger (third-person singular simple present passengers, present participle passengering, simple past and past participle passengered)

(intransitive) To ride as a passenger in a vehicle.

passenger meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

passenger in Hindi

one who rides or travels in a vehicle: पैसिंजर paisiñjar, मुसाफ़िर musāfir, यात्री yātrī

passenger in Tamil

பயணி

passenger in Marathi

प्रवासी, प्रवाशी

passenger in Urdu

one who rides or travels in a vehicle: مُسافِر musāfir, راکِب rākib

More languagesFewer languages

passenger in Bengali: যাত্রী মুসাফির jatri, রাহী rahi
passenger in Telugu: ప్రయాణికుడు
passenger in Malayalam: യാത്രക്കാരൻ yātrakkāraṉ
passenger in Kannada: ಪ್ರಯಾಣಿಕ, ಪಯಣಿಗ, ಯಾತ್ರಿ, ದಾರಿಕಾರ
passenger in Punjabi: ਸਵਾਰੀ savārī
passenger in Gujarati: યાત્રિક yātrik
passenger in Odia: ଯାତ୍ରୀ
passenger in Nepali: यात्रु, यात्री, यात्रुवाहक
passenger in Pashto: مسافر mosāfer
passenger in Arabic: مُسَافِر musāfir, مُسَافِرَة musāfira, سَافِر sāfir, رَاكِب rākib
passenger in Malay: penumpang
passenger in Indonesian: penumpang, pasasir
passenger in Thai: ผู้โดยสาร pûu-dooi-sǎan
passenger in Vietnamese: hành khách
passenger in Myanmar: ခရီးသည် hka.ri:sany

Examples of passenger in a sentence

The Concorde flew from Paris to New York faster than any other passenger airplane.
Some of the passengers were heard praising God as the stricken plane landed safely.
The train's consist included a baggage car, four passenger cars, and a diner.

All 40 example sentences with passenger

Synonyms of passenger

inmate

Forms of passenger

Noun
plural	passengers
Verb
third-person singular present	passengers
present participle	passengering
past participle	passengered
past	passengered

Plural of passenger: passengers

Origin of passenger

From Old French passagier with intrusive n (see etymology of messenger).

Phrases with passenger

Questions about passenger

What does passenger mean?: Passenger means one who rides or travels in a vehicle, but who does not operate it and is not a member of the crew.
What is passenger in Hindi?: Passenger in Hindi is पैसिंजर (paisiñjar), मुसाफ़िर (musāfir), यात्री (yātrī). See Passenger meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is passenger?: Passenger can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce passenger?: Passenger is pronounced /ˈpæs.ɪn.d͡ʒə/ (UK).
What is the plural of passenger?: The plural of passenger is passengers.

Words near passenger in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: passenger (page history and authors); passenger (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); passenger (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); passenger (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); passenger (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸਵਾਰੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); યાત્રિક (Gujarati) (page history and authors); passenger (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); passenger (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-passenger.ogg.

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