Word.ws English Dictionary

ridership

US/ˈɹaɪ.dəɹ.ʃɪp/

ridership noun: the people who ride a form of transportation.

Noun

ridership (countable and uncountable, plural riderships)

  1. (US, collective) The people who ride a form of transportation.
    • The bus company was going bankrupt because their ridership was too small.
    • Virgin Trains East Coast failed because ridership and revenue did not increase as predicted in its bid. It still rose, but not enough to satisfy the deal it had made with DfT. The result was that Stagecoach and Virgin lost a lot of money.2019 October 23, Philip Haigh, “Railway reorganisation offers no guarantee of a panacea”, in Rail, page 57
  2. (rare) The position or office of a rider.
    • After four years, (in 1780,) he ventured to propose the abolition of all riderships (croupe), and of other sinecures connected with the King’s household: […]1821 April, “Art[icle] VIII. Œuvres complètes de M. Necker, &c.; i. e. The complete Works of M. Necker, […] Notice sur M. Necker, &c.; i. e. An Account of M. Necker. […]”, in The Monthly Review; […]...
    • If you voluntarily put your head into that Apothecaries’ noose, so adroitly weaved for you in 1815 by the worse part of the Physicians, you will infallibly fall under the ridership it is your best desire to escape.1845 January 11, The Medical Times: […], volume XI, London: J. Angerstein Carfrae, […], →OCLC, page 328, column 3

Examples of ridership in a sentence

  • On the Paris Métro, ridership was just over half of normal in the first two months of this year.2021 March 25, Somini Sengupta, Geneva Abdul, Manuela Andreoni, Veronica Penney, “Riders Are Abandoning Buses and Trains. That’s a Problem...
  • Indeed, the only bird you are ever likely to see demonstrating supreme and serene ridership of the ocean waves is that noble, majestic, nautical and essentially British bird—the Albatross.1960 October 27, The Times, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13, column 4:

Forms of ridership

pluralriderships

Origin of ridership

From rider + -ship. Compare Middle English ridership, rydershipe; apparently re-formed.

Questions about ridership

What does ridership mean?
Ridership means the people who ride a form of transportation.
How do you use ridership in a sentence?
On the Paris Métro, ridership was just over half of normal in the first two months of this year.
What part of speech is ridership?
Ridership is a noun.
How do you pronounce ridership?
Ridership is pronounced /ˈɹaɪ.dəɹ.ʃɪp/ (US).
What is the plural of ridership?
The plural of ridership is riderships.

Words near ridership in the dictionary

  1. rider's bone
  2. ridered
  3. rideress
  4. riderless
  5. riders
  6. ridership
  7. riderships
  8. rides
  9. rides a horse foaled by an acorn
  10. rides a horse foaled of an acorn
  11. rides a rantipole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ridership (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ridership.wav.

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