passage

PAS-ij/ˈpæsɪd͡ʒ/

20 meanings of passage

1
nouncountable
A short part of a book, story, or piece of music.
Like one short part of a longer story or tune.
The teacher asked us to read a passage from the book aloud.
My favorite passage in the song repeats near the end.
Similarexcerpt, extract, section
Note
2
nouncountable
A long, narrow space that connects rooms or leads from one place to another.
Like a hallway that takes you from one room to the next.
We walked down a narrow passage to reach the back room.
The old house had a hidden passage behind the bookshelf.
Similarcorridor, hallway, hall, passageway
3
nouncountable
One part of a trip or route from one place to another.
Like one leg of a long trip.
The mountain passage was the hardest part of our hike.
They rested before the final passage of the long walk home.
Similarvoyage, crossing, stretch, leg
4
noununcountable
The act of moving across or through a place.
Like the way water moves through a pipe.
The bridge allows the passage of cars over the river.
Heavy snow blocked the passage of trucks through the mountains.
Similarmovement, transit, flow
Note
5
noununcountable
When a parliament or congress votes to approve a new law.
Like a class voting yes so a new rule begins.
The passage of the new law took several months.
Voters celebrated the passage of the health bill.
Similarenactment, approval, adoption
Oppositedefeat, rejection
6
noununcountable
The way time moves forward, going by little by little.
Like sand slowly falling through an hourglass.
The passage of time slowly healed her sadness.
You could see the passage of time in the old man's face.
Similarpassing
7
noununcountable
Permission or the right to go from one place to another.
Like having a pass that lets you go through a gate.
The refugees were given safe passage across the border.
The agreement gave the travelers passage through the checkpoint.
Similaraccess, transit
8
nouncountable
A single event or part of someone's life or story.
Like one chapter in the story of someone's life.
That difficult passage in her life made her stronger.
The argument was just a brief passage they both later forgot.
Similarepisode, period, chapter, phase
9
noununcountable
The money you pay to travel somewhere, usually by ship.
Like buying a ticket for a long trip.
They paid their passage on the steamer to America.
Her passage across the ocean cost a month's wages.
Similarfare
10
nouncountable
A narrow channel of water that ships can sail through.
Like a narrow road, but made of water for boats.
The boat sailed carefully through the rocky passage.
Strong tides make the narrow passage hard to cross.
Similarstrait, channel, sound
Note

11
nouncountable
A long, narrow underground tunnel made by water or by falling rocks.
Like a long hallway underground, but made by water instead of by builders.
The cave passage was so narrow that we had to crawl through it.
Water had carved a winding passage deep beneath the hills.
Similartunnel
Note
12
nouneuphemisticcountable
A polite word for the vagina.
The baby moved slowly down the passage during the long birth.
After delivery, the passage slowly healed over the following weeks.
Similarvagina, canal
Note
13
verbraretransitive or intransitive
To travel across water, especially the sea, from one place to another.
Like walking from one side of a room to the other, but across the sea in a boat.
The sailors set out to passage the wide bay before nightfall.
Each spring, families passage across the lake to reach the island.
Similarcross, sail, voyage
14
verbtransitive
To move a germ or cell through a host or material, often to grow more of it.
Like moving a plant into bigger and bigger pots so it keeps growing.
Scientists passage the cells to help them keep growing.
They passaged the bacteria through a series of dishes.
Similarsubculture
Note
15
noununcountable
A painting trick that uses careful brushwork to join objects in different parts of a picture.
Like blending two colors of clay so you can't see where one stops and the other starts.
The teacher showed how passage links shapes that seem far apart.
In this painting, passage makes the bottle melt into the cloth behind it.
Note
16
noununcountable
Growing germs or cells again and again through a series of hosts to change or study them.
Like copying a copy of a copy until the picture slowly changes.
After many rounds of passage, the virus became much weaker.
Scientists use passage to make germs safer for vaccines.
Note
17
USpa-SAHZH/pæˈsɑʒ/UKPAS-ahzh/ˈpasɑːʒ/
nouncountable
A slow, high, bouncy trot in horse riding, with a long pause as each hoof lifts.
Like a slow-motion, bouncy march where the horse seems to float between steps.
The horse performed a beautiful passage in front of the judges.
Learning the passage takes years of careful training.
Note
18
USpa-SAHZH/pæˈsɑʒ/UKPAS-ahzh/ˈpasɑːʒ/
verbintransitive
To perform the slow, high, bouncy trot used in horse riding displays.
The horse passaged slowly across the ring.
She trained her pony to passage on command.
Note
19
adjectivebefore a noun
Describing a young wild bird under a year old that has left the nest and lives alone.
Like a teenager who has moved out of the family home but isn't fully grown up yet.
A passage bird has already learned to hunt on its own.
The young passage hawk had survived its first winter alone.
Note
20
nounhistoricaluncountable
An old gambling game for two people using three dice, where you try to roll a double higher than ten.
Like a dice game where you bet money and try to roll high matching numbers.
The men played passage late into the night, rolling the three dice again and again.
She won a silver coin at passage with a lucky double.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–16, 19–20

It came into Middle English from Old French passage, from passer meaning "to pass."

Meanings 17–18

It comes from French passager, which came from Italian passeggiare.