passenger
Americannoun
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a person who is traveling in an automobile, bus, train, airplane, or other conveyance, especially one who is not the driver, pilot, or the like.
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a wayfarer; traveler.
noun
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a person travelling in a car, train, boat, etc, not driven by him
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( as modifier )
a passenger seat
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a member of a group or team who is a burden on the others through not participating fully in the work
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of passenger
1300–50; Middle English passager < Middle French, noun use of passag ( i ) er (adj.) passing, temporary; see passage 1, -ier 2; for -n- cf. messenger, harbinger, scavenger, popinjay
Explanation
A passenger is a person who rides in a vehicle. If you grab a ride home from school with your best friend, you are a passenger in her car. Everyone riding in a train, plane, bus, or any other vehicle is a passenger — except the driver, pilot, or crew. A passenger's only job is to ride along. In the fourteenth century, a passenger was simply a "passer-by," from the Old French passagier, "passing, fleeting, or traveling." The first instance of the modern use was recorded in the early 1500s.
Vocabulary lists containing passenger
Greetings, World Traveler! — List 1
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"Return to Titanic" and "Talking with Robert Ballard"
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for September 10–September 16, 2022
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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.
For instance, GKN Aerospace is also the sole mass supplier of canopies for the F-35 fleet and passenger cabin windows for Boeing.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
“Capivaras!” exclaimed one Brazilian passenger after another, all of whom had passed cows and horses without much reaction.
From Slate • May 27, 2026
“We are now less optimistic that Cathay can fully pass through higher fuel costs to consumers,” she adds, noting that a full pass-through would dampen passenger demand.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 25, 2026
It comes after a UK-bound EasyJet flight was diverted to Rome last week because a passenger had packed a charging power bank in hold luggage.
From BBC • May 25, 2026
Coal sat in the front passenger seat, ogling the bright, shiny dials in the car’s dash.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
