passenger
Americannoun
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passengers
plural
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
In 2013, after years of losses and declining passenger numbers, concerns about its future prompted the Scottish government to buy it for £1.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
John Whitehurst, chief executive of GTR, said passenger feedback had played a key role in shaping the plans.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
A month before the documentary premiered on Netflix, a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window on a 737-800 Boeing plane when the cabin lost pressure after the plane took off from Thessaloniki, Greece.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The increase in passenger traffic will probably support higher jet-fuel demand at major airports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Nathan slumped his way over to Nali and jumped into the passenger side.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
In Cardiff, campaigners are concerned about proposals for a data centre campus in Llanrumney, on the site of the Cardiff East Park & Ride which takes passengers to the University Hospital of Wales.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
He added: "Demand for flying remains high, as Scottish passengers adjust their travel plans around global events."
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Iranian airlines are running regular direct flights shuttling passengers between Iran and the U.A.E.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Many of the passengers he interviewed said they felt freed from their usual social roles while onboard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
There were cars and other tro.tros lined up in front of us, their passengers waiting inside them too, and more soon stopped behind us.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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.
