Word.ws English Dictionary

Porte

Porte proper noun: the Ottoman court; (hence), the government of the Ottoman empire.

Proper noun

Porte

  1. (historical) The Ottoman court; (hence), the government of the Ottoman empire.
    • Another odd Combination: 'tis now confidently asserted that the Ottoman Porte enters into a League offensive & defensive with France […].1793 February 20, Hester Piozzi, Thraliana
    • A hired diplomat in Edirne and to the Porte in Constantinople, a military commander in the Austro-Turkish wars, a polyhistor and a learned man.1988, Milorad Pavić, translated by Christina Pribićević-Zorić, Dictionary of the Khazars, Vintage, published 1989, page 24

Forms of Porte

alternative formOttoman Porte
alternative formSublime Porte

Origin of Porte

From Middle French porte (“gate”), ultimately after Ottoman Turkish باب عالی (Bâb-ı Âli, “Exalted Gate”), from Arabic بَاب (bāb, “gate”) and عَالِيّ (ʕāliyy, “high, exalted”), a synecdoche for the Ottoman government originally referring to the outer gate of the sultan's Topkapı palace at which justice was administered, and later to the gate of the palace of the grand vizier.

Phrases with Porte

Questions about Porte

What does Porte mean?
Porte means the Ottoman court; (hence), the government of the Ottoman empire.
What part of speech is Porte?
Porte is a proper noun.

Words near Porte in the dictionary

  1. portcullis
  2. portcullised
  3. portcullises
  4. portcullising
  5. portcullisses
  6. Porte
  7. porte cochere
  8. porte cochère
  9. porte cochères
  10. porte-cochere
  11. porte-cocheres

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Porte (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.

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