How to use portmanteau in a sentence
20 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb
Portmanteau means a large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections. Example: “It also reflects the way portmanteau coinages incorporating “bro-” and “man-” — “portmanbros,” if you will — have increasingly taken on a critical edge, in keeping with shifts in conversations around gender.”
Examples of portmanteau by meaning
nounA word formed by putting two words together and thereby their meaning.
- It also reflects the way portmanteau coinages incorporating “bro-” and “man-” — “portmanbros,” if you will — have increasingly taken on a critical edge, in keeping with shifts in conversations around gender.2017 December 14, Jennifer Schuessler, “‘Youthquake’ Is Oxford’s Word of the Year. Sorry, Broflake.”, in The New York Times, New York...
nounA portmanteau film.
- His long-awaited portmanteau, which premiered in Cannes on Monday, is the most Anderson of all Anderson films.2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC
adjectiveMade by combining two (or more) words, stories, etc., in the manner of a linguistic portmanteau.
- The overall narrator of this portmanteau story - for Dickens co-wrote it with five collaborators on his weekly periodical, All the Year Round - expresses deep, rational scepticism about the whole business of haunting.2002 December 14, Nicholas Lezard, “Spooky tales by the master and friends”, in The Guardian (London), page 30
More sentences with portmanteau
- The term fraudience is a portmanteau derived from the terms fraud and audience.2023 August 5 (last accessed), “Fraudience: definition of Fraudience and synonyms of Fraudience”, in sensagent - dictionary, archived from…. From the entry fraudience
- As the month came to an end, Striketober turned into Strikevember, Strikesgiving and other strike-themed portmanteaus.2022 January 21, Nathan Wall, “Striketober didn't end, keep supporting striking workers”, in The Lawrentian, Lawrence University. From the entry Striketober
- Blends, also known as portmanteau words, are not an original part of English.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 10. From the entry blend
- Dynamitic portmanteaus of evidently American origin have been found at Charing Cross and Paddington Stations.2011, Jane Stanford, That Irishman: The Life and Times of John O'Connor Power. From the entry dynamitic
- “This is my 88th xeet, Heil Hitler,” the account said, using a portmanteau to describe posting on X.2024 January 5, Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, quoting Alexander Katsnelson, “Ex-Gosar staffers have voiced racism, antisemitism and homophobia on…. From the entry xeet
- The Gaylors refer to this as the "Hetlor" thesis (Hetlor being a deeply unfortunate portmanteau of heterosexual and Taylor).[2022 October 31, Joe Packer, “How Gaylor Swift conspiracists think like QAnoners”, in Salon.com, archived from the original on 25 Jul 2023. From the entry Hetlor
- But don’t dismiss maskne — acne and irritation from wearing a mask — as just another portmanteau to market skin-care products.2020 June 17, Courtney Rubin, “Maskne Is the New Acne, and Here’s What Is Causing It”, in New York Times. From the entry maskne
- Some etymons appear to have greater valency than others when it comes to the formation of portmanteau words.2018, James Lambert, “A Multitude of ‘Lishes’: The Nomenclature of Hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 10. From the entry valency
- My beef isn’t with glamping, despite its issues (unfortunate portmanteau, the image of lumbersexuals playing Ralph Lauren at summer camp).2015 May 23, Christopher Solomon, “Our Pampered Wilderness”, in The New York Times. From the entry lumbersexual
- Derrick gave his small portmanteau to the flyman and told him to drive there, and he himself set out walking.1913, Charles Garvice, The Woman's Way. From the entry flyman
- One reason for the popularity of portmanteau words in naming language hybrids may be the fact that the names themselves embody a type of hybridity.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 10. From the entry portmanteau word
- The research presented in this paper is the most comprehensive and up-to-date reckoning of an expanding set of portmanteau terms based on the word English.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 18. From the entry reckoning
- The relevant tags here were very similar to LJ, if phrased slightly differently: e.g., parentlock (portmanteau of parent + Sherlock), military John, genderswap, mpreg.2017, Judith May Fathallah, Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts, page 65. From the entry parentlock
- I was recently introduced to procrastibaking: a portmanteau word to describe the process of baking for the sole reason of avoiding other tasks.18 May 2011, Julian Fernando, “Little gain in lazy English mangling”, in The Age. From the entry procrastibaking
- G.L.'s post reminded me that "malamanteau" could in fact be quite useful, if we reduced its meaning to simply "an erroneous and unintentional portmanteau".2010 November 4, Robert Lane Greene, “Eggcorn, mashup, malamanteau or other?”, Johnson, in The Economist, archived from the original on 03…. From the entry refudiate
- It rejoices in the name of the “swoose”, a portmanteau word indicating its origin, for its father was a swan and its mother a goose.1920 July 13, Daily Mail. From the entry swoose
- For example, there are portmanteaus of each and every BTS member combination, with fans hoping that JiKook (Jimin and Jungkook) or V-Hope (V and J-Hope) will become a thing.2018 September 12, Jessica Lindsay, “What does shipping mean when people aren’t talking about ships?”, in Metro, UK. From the entry Jikook
Meaning of portmanteau
- noun A large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections.
- noun A word formed by putting two words together and thereby their meaning.
- noun A portmanteau film.
Questions about portmanteau in a sentence
- How do you use portmanteau in a sentence?
- Portmanteau is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “It also reflects the way portmanteau coinages incorporating “bro-” and “man-” — “portmanbros,” if you will — have increasingly taken on a critical edge, in keeping with shifts in conversations around gender.”
- What is a short sentence with portmanteau?
- “Blends, also known as portmanteau words, are not an original part of English.”
- What does portmanteau mean?
- Portmanteau means a large travelling case usually made of leather, and opening into two equal sections.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: portmanteau (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use portmanteau in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/portmanteau. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
