porter

¹ American  

[pawr-ter, pohr-] / ˈpɔr tər, ˈpoʊr- /

noun

1. a person hired to carry burdens or baggage, as at a railroad station or a hotel.

2. a person who does cleaning and maintenance work in a building, factory, store, etc.

3. an attendant in a railroad parlor car or sleeping car.

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porter ² American  

[pawr-ter, pohr-] / ˈpɔr tər, ˈpoʊr- /

noun

1. a person who has charge of a door or gate; doorkeeper.

2. Roman Catholic Church. ostiary.

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porter ³ American  

[pawr-ter, pohr-] / ˈpɔr tər, ˈpoʊr- /

noun

1. a heavy, dark-brown ale made with malt browned by drying at a high temperature.

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Porter ⁴ American  

[pawr-ter, pohr-] / ˈpɔr tər, ˈpoʊr- /

noun

1. Cole, 1893–1964, U.S. composer.

2. David, 1780–1843, U.S. naval officer.

3. his son David Dixon 1813–91, Union naval officer in the Civil War.

4. Edwin Stanton, 1870–1941, U.S. film director.

5. Gene Gene Stratton Porter, 1868–1924, U.S. novelist.

6. Sir George, 1920–2002, British chemist: Nobel Prize 1967.

7. Katherine Anne, 1890–1980, U.S. writer.

8. Noah, 1811–92, U.S. educator, writer, and lexicographer.

9. Rodney Robert, 1917–85, British biochemist: Nobel Prize in medicine 1972.

10. William Sydney O. Henry, 1862–1910, U.S. short-story writer.

11. a male given name.

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porter ¹ British  

/ ˈpɔːtə /

noun

1. a person employed to carry luggage, parcels, supplies, etc, esp at a railway station or hotel

2. (in hospitals) a person employed to move patients from place to place

3. a railway employee who waits on passengers, esp in a sleeper

4. a manual labourer

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porter ² British  

/ ˈpɔːtə /

noun

1. a dark sweet ale brewed from black malt

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porter ³ British  

/ ˈpɔːtə /

noun

1. a person in charge of a gate or door; doorman or gatekeeper

2. a person employed by a university or college as a caretaker and doorkeeper who also answers enquiries

3. a person in charge of the maintenance of a building, esp a block of flats

4. Also called: ostiary.  RC Church a person ordained to what was formerly the lowest in rank of the minor orders

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Porter ⁴ British  

/ ˈpɔːtə /

noun

1. Cole. 1893–1964, US composer and lyricist of musical comedies. His most popular songs include Night and Day and Let's do It

2. George, Baron Porter of Luddenham. 1920–2002, British chemist, who shared a Nobel prize for chemistry in 1967 for his work on flash photolysis

3. Katherine Anne. 1890–1980, US short-story writer and novelist. Her best-known collections of stories are Flowering Judas (1930) and Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939)

4. Rodney Robert. 1917–85, British biochemist: shared the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine 1972 for determining the structure of an antibody

5. William Sidney. original name of O. Henry

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Porter Scientific  

/ pôr′tər /

1. British biochemist who shared with George Edelman the 1972 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their study of the chemical structure of antibodies.

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Etymology

Origin of porter¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English portour, portur(e), porter, from Anglo-French portour, porter, from Middle French portour, from Old French porteour, from Late Latin portātōr- (stem of portātor, a derivative of portāre “to carry”; see also port ⁵, -or ²

Origin of porter²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English porter, porter(e), portar(e), from Anglo-French porter, portour, from Old French portier, from Late Latin portārius “gatekeeper,” equivalent to porta “door” + -ārius adjective and noun suffix; see also port ⁴, -er ²

Origin of porter³

First recorded in 1720–30; short for porter's ale, apparently originally brewed for porters

Explanation

A porter is someone who carries luggage for tourists. If you ever travel by train across the country, you'll be grateful to the porter. The person at an airport, train station, or hotel who's paid to help with your luggage is a porter. It's also the name of a train employee who assists passengers traveling in sleeper cars. The word porter comes from the Latin portatorem, one who carries. The dark, sweet beer known as porter or porter's ale comes from the same root word — because its taste and low price was the favorite of porters and other laborers.

Example Sentences

As a $5.28-an-hour porter he had to scrap 15,000 square feet of trash every 60 minutes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

A transit porter and motorman with the New York City subway in the 1980s, Mr. Naiden was active in a tiny communist cell within the union, endorsing free fares and encouraging turnstile hopping.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

Scrawled in chalk in the list of draft beers was the Edmund Fitzgerald porter, a longtime brew from the Great Lakes Brewing Co.

From Slate • Nov. 10, 2025

He joined the 35-member expedition as a porter despite no prior mountaineering experience.

From BBC • Oct. 16, 2025

The porter rented pillows on this run too, but I slept just fine without one.

From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson