ticket

/ˈtɪk.ət//ˈtɪk.ɪt/

ticket noun: a pass entitling the holder to admission to a show, concert, sporting event, etc.

Image: Andreas -horn- Hornig, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ticket (plural tickets)

A pass entitling the holder to admission to a show, concert, sporting event, etc.
- I've got two tickets for the match on Saturday; want to come?
A pass entitling the holder to board a train, a bus, a plane, or other means of transportation.
- train ticket bus ticket plane ticket
- You must show your ticket to the conductor.
A permit to operate a machine on a construction site.

Synonyms:

license
A certificate or token of a share in a lottery or other scheme for distributing money, goods, etc.
- lottery ticket raffle ticket
- If I'd used my usual numbers, it would've been a winning ticket! Unlucky!
A certificate of qualification as a ship's master, pilot, or other crew member.
- The variety of the demands of the railways for staff is almost endless. They require men with master's tickets as dock masters and to command their steamships.1942 July-August, T. F. Cameron, “How the Staff of a Railway is Recruited”, in Railway Magazine, page 207
(figuratively) A solution to a problem; something that is needed in order to do something.
- That's the ticket.
- I saw my first bike as my ticket to freedom.
A citation for a traffic violation.
(usually technical support) A service request, used to track complaints or requests that an issue be handled.
- "Yeah." It was him, alright; if the world's weariest pair of workboots hadn't tipped her off, his world-weary voice certainly would have. "Where were you?"
  "My quarters. We've got a full ticket set today, and techs work best without oversight." Neither of these things was untrue, though the...2022 September 19, HarryBlank, “Beyond Repair”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 15 Sep 2024
(informal) A list of candidates for an election, or a particular theme to a candidate's manifesto.
- Joe has joined the party's ticket for the county elections.
- Joe will be running on an anti-crime ticket.
(dated) A small note or notice.
- He constantly read his lectures twice a week for above forty years, giving notice of the time to his auditors in a ticket on the school doors.a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC
- Under each coin was a circular ticket with written particulars of the specimen accompanying it.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
(dated) A tradesman's bill or account (hence the phrase on ticket and eventually on tick).
- Your courtier is mad to take up silks and velvets / On ticket for his mistress.1633, Shackerley Marmion, A Fine Companion
A label affixed to goods to show their price or description.
(dated) A visiting card.
- I asked for a card, please, and she was quite put about, and said that she didn't require tickets to get in where she visited.1878, Mrs. James Mason, All about Edith, page 124
- "Mr. Gibbs come in just now," said Mrs. Blewett, "and left his ticket over the chimley. There 'tis. I haven't touched it."1899, The Leisure Hour: An Illustrated Magazine for Home Reading
(slang) A warrant.
- […] I need a ticket, Bobby.” Agnor knew a ticket meant a search warrant.1999, Doug Most, Always in Our Hearts, page 148

Verb

ticket (third-person singular simple present tickets, present participle ticketing, simple past and past participle ticketed)

To issue someone a ticket, as for travel or for a violation of a local or traffic law.
To mark with a ticket.
- to ticket goods in a retail store

ticket meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

ticket in Hindi

admission to entertainment: टिकट ṭikaṭ
pass for transportation: टिकट ṭikaṭ
traffic citation: चालान cālān

ticket in Marathi

admission to entertainment: तिकीट tikīṭ
pass for transportation: तिकीट tikīṭ
traffic citation: चलान calān

ticket in Urdu

admission to entertainment: ٹِکَٹ ṭikaṭ
pass for transportation: ٹِکَٹ ṭikaṭ
traffic citation: چالان cālān

More languagesFewer languages

ticket in Bengali: টিকিট ṭikiṭ, টিকেট ṭikeṭ
ticket in Telugu: ఉల్లాకు ullāku
ticket in Malayalam: ടിക്കറ്റ് ṭikkaṟṟŭ
ticket in Kannada: ಉಂಡಿಗೆ, ಚೀಟಿ
ticket in Gujarati: ટિકિટ ṭikiṭ
ticket in Odia: ଟିକଟ ṭikaṭa
ticket in Sinhala: ටිකට් ṭikaṭ
ticket in Assamese: টিকেট tiket
ticket in Nepali: टिकट ṭikaṭ
ticket in Pashto: بلېط belet, ټکټ ṭekəṭ
ticket in Arabic: تَذْكِرَة taḏkira, تذكرة taḏkira
ticket in Malay: tiket
ticket in Indonesian: karcis, tiket
ticket in Persian: نَامْزدْنامِه
ticket in Thai: ตั๋ว dtǔua, บัตร bàt
ticket in Vietnamese: vé, liên danh, danh sách ứng viên, phạt
ticket in Myanmar: လက်မှတ် lakhmat

Examples of ticket in a sentence

The postman has been today, but my tickets have still not yet come.
Don't want to go? All the better since I lost the tickets.
Her expression changed from joy to misery after realising her winning lottery ticket had expired.

All 40 example sentences with ticket

Synonyms of ticket

license

Forms of ticket

Noun
plural	tickets
Verb
third-person singular present	tickets
present participle	ticketing
past participle	ticketed
past	ticketed

Past tense of ticket: ticketed

Plural of ticket: tickets

Origin of ticket

Borrowed from Middle Scots tikkat, tikket, from Middle French etiquet m, estiquet m, and etiquette f, estiquette f (“a bill, note, label, ticket”), from Old French estechier, estichier, estequier (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stikkjan, *stekan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Doublet of etiquette. More at stick.

Words formed from ticket

Phrases with ticket

72 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ticket

Questions about ticket

What does ticket mean?: Ticket means a pass entitling the holder to admission to a show, concert, sporting event, etc.
What is ticket in Hindi?: Ticket in Hindi is टिकट (ṭikaṭ), चालान (cālān). See Ticket meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ticket?: Ticket can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ticket?: Ticket is pronounced /ˈtɪk.ɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of ticket?: The plural of ticket is tickets.

Words near ticket in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: ticket (page history and authors); ticket (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ఉల్లాకు (Telugu) (page history and authors); ticket (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ટિકિટ (Gujarati) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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