portmanteau
Americannoun
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Chiefly British. a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
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Linguistics.
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Also called portmanteau word. a word that combines the form and meaning of two or more other words; a blend.
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Also called portmanteau morph. a phonological unit of more than one morpheme, as French au (to the) from à to + le masculine article, which realizes a preposition and the definite article; a single morph that is analyzed as representing two underlying morphemes.
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something that combines or blends several items, features, or qualities.
I've gathered a portmanteau of ideas from my colleagues.
adjective
noun
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(formerly) a large travelling case made of stiff leather, esp one hinged at the back so as to open out into two compartments
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(modifier) embodying several uses or qualities
the heroine is a portmanteau figure of all the virtues
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of portmanteau
From French portemanteau literally, “(it) carries (the) cloak”; see port 5, mantle; portmanteau def. 1 was first recorded in 1575–85, and portmanteau def. 2a in 1871 in Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Explanation
A portmanteau is a large suitcase. The word comes from French porter "carry" and manteau "mantle, or cloak" — so it's what you carry your clothes in. Or, a portmanteau is a word made by combining two other words. You might remember portmanteau from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, where Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the portmanteau word, in which "two meanings are packed up into one word." So, according to Humpty Dumpty, slithy means "lithe and slimy," and mimsy is "flimsy and miserable." You can make your own portmanteau words, and here are some examples for inspiration: smog (smoke + fog); brunch (breakfast + lunch), sitcom (situation + comedy), and infomercial (information + commercial).
Vocabulary lists containing portmanteau
Frankenstein
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English Words Derived from French, List 4
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Dracula
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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:
Wall Street loves an ugly portmanteau, or jamming together of two words in a way that sows confusion, followed closely by dislike.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Some call themselves healthmaxxers – sharing tips on what to eat and working out, while others identify as looksmaxxers, a portmanteau for 'looks maximising', where the aim is to totally "optimise" one's physical appearance.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
SaaSpocalypse is the portmanteau combining the acronym for software-as-a-service, SaaS, with apocalypse.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 24, 2026
With Australian billionaire James Packer, Ratner formed RatPac Entertainment—a portmanteau nodding to the Frank Sinatra era of showbiz that Ratner venerated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
“Ah, yes, the portmanteau call, as you say in England.”
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
As long as there have been neighborhoods, there have been portmanteaus meant to sell those neighborhoods and their potential trendiness.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2022
The goofiest of these portmanteaus, and one of the more enduring, involved the carryall.
From New York Times ● Nov. 8, 2021
If these words were derivatives or portmanteaus of familiar words, context clues could illuminate the meaning.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2020
In that first iteration, the anonymous writer explained “hatriot” in almost bemused terms as just one then recent example of portmanteaus like “Republocrat”.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2019
He had a large bundle of letters, taken from one of Chartres' portmanteaus, with him.
From A Practical Novelist by Davidson, John
The person spoken of as Antony now appeared, and began to hale about Violet's portmanteaux.
From Vixen, Volume III. by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
She looked at the two portmanteaux and considered how they could be moved out of the way.
From The Outcaste by Penny, F. E.
A luggage-cart, piled high with dress-baskets and portmanteaux, passed down the drive towards the station gates, and a motor-car returned from a neighbouring house for something that had been forgotten.
From Peter and Jane or The Missing Heir by Macnaughtan, S. (Sarah)
Oh dear, what a useless creature I am," she thought; "and why do people strap portmanteaux so tightly?
From Vixen, Volume III. by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
He passed between two uniformed policemen with the utmost self-possession, even pausing there momentarily to give some instruction to a porter about the disposition of his portmanteaux.
From The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley by Tracy, Louis
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.
