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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pass.

To change place.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/pɑːs/[pʰɑːs]General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[pʰäːs]Australia, New-Zealand[pʰɐːs]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To change place. To move or be moved from one place to another.

    intransitive
    They passed from room to room.
  2. To change place. To go past, by, over, or through; to proceed from one side to the other of; to move past.

    transitive
    You will pass a house on your right.
  3. To change place. To cause to move or go; to send; to transfer from one person, place, or condition to another.

    ditransitive
    The waiter passed biscuits and cheese.
    John passed Suzie a note.
  4. To change place. To eliminate (something) from the body by natural processes.

    intransitive · transitive
    He was passing blood in both his urine and his stool.
    The poison had been passed by the time of the autopsy.
  5. To change place. To take a turn with (a line, gasket, etc.), as around a sail in furling, and make secure.

    transitive
  6. To change place. To make various kinds of movement. To kick (the ball) with precision rather than at full force.

    transitive
  7. To change place. To make various kinds of movement. To move (the ball or puck) to a teammate.

    transitive
  8. To change place. To make various kinds of movement. To make a lunge or swipe.

    intransitive
  9. To change place. To make various kinds of movement. To throw the ball, generally downfield, towards a teammate.

    intransitive
    The Patriots passed on third and long.
  10. To change place. To go from one person to another.

    intransitive
  11. To change place. To put in circulation; to give currency to.

    transitive
    pass counterfeit money
  12. To change place. To cause to obtain entrance, admission, or conveyance.

    transitive
    pass a person into a theater or over a railroad
  13. To change place. To put through a sieve.

    transitive
    When it's finished cooking, you should pass the sauce to get rid of any lumps.
  14. To change in state or status To progress from one state to another; to advance.

    intransitive
    He passed from youth into old age.
  15. To change in state or status To depart, to cease, to come to an end.

    intransitive
    At first, she was worried, but that feeling soon passed.
  16. To change in state or status To die.

    euphemistic · intransitive
    His grandmother passed yesterday.
  17. To change in state or status To achieve a successful outcome from.

    intransitive · transitive
    He attempted the examination, but did not expect to pass.
    Of the Ancient Wonders, only the pyramids have passed the test of time.
  18. To change in state or status To advance through all the steps or stages necessary to become valid or effective; to obtain the formal sanction of (a legislative body).

    intransitive · transitive
    Despite the efforts of the opposition, the bill passed.
    The bill passed both houses of Congress.
  19. To change in state or status To be conveyed or transferred by will, deed, or other instrument of conveyance.

    intransitive
    The estate passes by the third clause in Mr Smith's deed to his son.
    When the old king passed away with only a daughter as an heir, the throne passed to a woman for the first time in centuries.
  20. To change in state or status To cause to advance by stages of progress; to carry on with success through an ordeal, examination, or action; specifically, to give legal or official sanction to; to ratify; to enact; to approve as valid and just.

    transitive
    He passed the bill through the committee.
  21. To change in state or status To make a judgment on or upon a person or case.

    intransitive
  22. To change in state or status To utter; to pronounce; to pledge.

    transitive
  23. To change in state or status To change from one state to another (without the implication of progression).

    intransitive
  24. To move through time. To elapse, to be spent.

    intransitive
    Their vacation passed pleasantly.
  25. To move through time. To spend.

    transitive
    What will we do to pass the time?
  26. To move through time. To allow to go by without noticing; to omit attention to; to take no note of; to disregard.

    transitive
  27. To move through time. To continue.

    intransitive
  28. To move through time. To proceed without hindrance or opposition.

    intransitive
    You're late, but I'll let it pass.
  29. To move through time. To live through; to have experience of; to undergo; to suffer.

    transitive
  30. To move through time. To happen.

    intransitive
    It will soon come to pass.
  31. To be accepted. To be tolerated as a substitute for something else, to "do".

    intransitive · stative
    It isn't ideal, but it will pass.
  32. To be accepted. To be accepted by others as a member of a race, sex, or other group to which one does not belong or would not have originally appeared to belong; especially to be considered white although one has black ancestry, or a woman although one was assigned male at birth or vice versa.

    intransitive · stative
  33. To refrain from doing something. To decline something that is offered or available.

    intransitive
    He asked me to go to the cinema with him, but I think I'll pass.
  34. To refrain from doing something. To reject; to pass up.

    transitive
  35. To refrain from doing something. To decline or not attempt to answer a question.

    intransitive
    I haven't any idea of the answer, so I'll have to pass.
  36. To refrain from doing something. In turn-based games, to decline to play in one's turn.

    intransitive
  37. To refrain from doing something. In euchre, to decline to make the trump.

    intransitive
  38. To do or be better. To go beyond bounds; to surpass; to be in excess.

    intransitive · obsolete
  39. To do or be better. To transcend; to surpass; to excel; to exceed.

    transitive
  40. To take heed, to have an interest, to care.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English passen, from Old French passer (“to step, walk, pass”), from Vulgar Latin *passāre (“step, walk, pass”), derived from Latin passus (“a step”), from Proto-Italic *pat-s-tus, from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread, stretch out”). Cognate with Old English fæþm (“armful, fathom”). More at fathom. Displaced native Old English genġan.

noun/pɑːs/[pʰɑːs]General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[pʰäːs]Australia, New-Zealand[pʰɐːs]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. An opening, road, or track, available for passing; especially, one through or over some dangerous or otherwise impracticable barrier such as a mountain range; a passageway; a defile; a ford.

    mountain pass
  2. A channel connecting a river or body of water to the sea, for example at the mouth (delta) of a river.

    the passes of the Mississippi
  3. A single movement, especially of a hand, at, over, or along anything.

  4. A single passage of a tool over something, or of something over a tool.

  5. An attempt.

    My first pass at a career of writing proved unsuccessful.
  6. An attempt. A sexual advance (often in the phrase make a pass).

    The man kicked his friend out of the house after he made a pass at his wife.
  7. Success in an examination or similar test.

    I gained three passes at A-level, in mathematics, French, and English literature.
  8. A thrust or push; an attempt to stab or strike an adversary.

  9. A thrust; a sally of wit.

    figuratively
  10. The act of moving the ball or puck from one player to another.

    Everyone in the football stadium expected a pass play on third down.
  11. A passing of two trains in the same direction on a single track, when one is put into a siding to let the other overtake it.

  12. Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.

  13. A document granting permission to pass or to go and come; a passport; a ticket permitting free transit or admission

    a railroad pass; a theater pass; a military pass
  14. An intentional walk.

    Smith was given a pass after Jones' double.
  15. The act of overtaking; an overtaking manoeuvre.

  16. The state of things; condition; predicament; impasse.

  17. Estimation; character.

    obsolete
  18. The area in a restaurant kitchen where the finished dishes are passed from the chefs to the waiting staff.

  19. An act of declining to play one's turn in a game, often by saying the word "pass".

    A pass would have seen her win the game, but instead she gave a wrong answer and lost a point, putting her in second place.
  20. A run through a document as part of a translation, compilation or reformatting process.

    Most Pascal compilers process source code in a single pass.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English pas, pase, pace, from passen (“to pass”).

noun/pɑːs/[pʰɑːs]General-South-African, Received-Pronunciation[pʰäːs]Australia, New-Zealand[pʰɐːs]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A password (especially one for a restricted-access website).

    slang
    Anyone want to trade passes?
Where this word comes from

Clipping of password.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.