limousine
Americannoun
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any large, luxurious automobile, especially one driven by a chauffeur.
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a large sedan or small bus, especially one for transporting passengers to and from an airport, between train stations, etc.
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a former type of automobile having a permanently enclosed compartment for from three to five persons, with a roof projecting forward over the driver's seat in front.
noun
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any large and luxurious car, esp one that has a glass division between the driver and passengers
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a former type of car in which the roof covering the rear seats projected over the driver's compartment
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of limousine
1900–05; < French: kind of motorcar, special use of limousine long cloak, so called because worn by the shepherds of Limousin
Explanation
A limousine is a fancy car that's driven by a special driver. Some high school kids hire limousines to take them and their friends to the prom. Some limousines are unusually long, stretched-out versions of regular sedans, while others are merely large and luxurious. The passengers in a limousine sit in the back, sometimes separated from the driver, or chauffeur, by a partition. Wealthy people might own their limousines, but most people rent them for special occasions like weddings. In the US, the word is also used to mean a more ordinary type of hired car: "I'll just take a limousine to the airport."
Vocabulary lists containing limousine
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nearby, a driver for a limousine service chatted with his dispatcher.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
Manifold added that he had turned down a chauffeur-driven limousine, private jets, and corporate sports tickets.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
Awad owned a limousine company, and his big SUV was a fixture in the area.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
A convoy of vans, lorries, tractors, and even a limousine, are taking part in a 'go-slow' around the town centre before crossing the border into Lifford, County Donegal.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
We turn around and see the biggest stretch limousine you can imagine.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
There was a two-story parking garage where patrons could have their limousines serviced as well as casitas to rent for the season and a dormitory for working women above the shops.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025
It scrambled senior officials to talks in Geneva and all of Sunday we saw delegates from the US and Ukraine shuttling back and forth between the two main venues in black limousines with darkened windows.
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025
Bingo, nearly a decade later the lawsuits have racked up only losses in their campaign to blame Exxon for providing the fuel for the limousines and jets that Rockefeller trustees ride around in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
In the guitar-powered slow burn, she recounts hating high school and escaping to the city where she encountered “Drag queens in limousines / Nuns in blue jeans / Dreamers with big dreams.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
The good part of this is that since I was there when Big Joe was first talking about his funeral I was going to get to ride in one of the limousines.
From "145th Street: Short Stories" by Walter Dean Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
