portmanteau

American  

[pawrt-man-toh, pawrt-man-toh] / pɔrtˈmæn toʊ, ˌpɔrt mænˈtoʊ /

noun

• portmanteaus,
  plural
• portmanteaux
  plural

1. Chiefly British. a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.

2. Linguistics.

   1. Also called portmanteau word. a word that combines the form and meaning of two or more other words; a blend.

   2. 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.

3. something that combines or blends several items, features, or qualities.

   I've gathered a portmanteau of ideas from my colleagues.

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adjective

1. combining or blending several items, features, or qualities.

   a portmanteau film with two good stories.

portmanteau British  

/ pɔːtˈmæntəʊ /

noun

1. (formerly) a large travelling case made of stiff leather, esp one hinged at the back so as to open out into two compartments

2. (modifier) embodying several uses or qualities

   the heroine is a portmanteau figure of all the virtues

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• portmanteaus
  plural
• portmanteaux
  plural

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).

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

portmanteau portmanteaus portmanteaux

There’s a belief that nutraceuticals—a portmanteau of nutrition and pharmaceutical—can’t hurt because they’re natural, but “poisons are natural,” Barzilai says.

From Barron's ● May 21, 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

Let us name this portmanteau legal sense Evidence-Legal.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

They experiment with Morse code, and coin portmanteaus to save on their daily word quota.

From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2023

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

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

The two cloak room tickets for portmanteaus inspired the dentist to remark: "Must be in one of the portmanteaus."

From '?19,000' by Burford Delannoy

Then, murmuring in undertones when they spoke, the detectives unpacked their portmanteaux.

From The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley by Louis Tracy

Oh dear, what a useless creature I am," she thought; "and why do people strap portmanteaux so tightly?

From Vixen, Volume III. by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Anna's tin box was flung on to the roof of the cab amid the trunks and portmanteaux already there.

From Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett

The douaniers look upon tourists as their natural enemies; see how eagerly they pounce upon the portmanteaux!

From The Ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper

In fact, it was quite a carriage-ful of us that steamed away north-west from Paddington—namely, Smith, myself, Smith's father and mother, my father and mother, a number of boxes, portmanteaux, and parcels, and Smith's sister.

From Fifty-Two Stories For Girls by Alfred H. (Alfred Henry) Miles