Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

portmanteau word

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.56 in modern English

Syllables: port-man-teau -word
IPA

23

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

4

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A word which combines the meaning of two words (or, rarely, more than two words), formed by combining the words, usually, but not always, by adjoining the first part of one word and the last part of the other, the adjoining parts often having a common vowel.

Example Sentences

"Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’ ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a portmanteau⸺there are two meanings packed up into one word."
"He found the blend "tomax" in "a collection of gratulatory verses presented by the President and Fellows of Harvard College 1 to the new King, George III," dated 1761. A note by the owner of the volume explains the word as a combination of tomahawk and axe: "It is a portmanteau word, which must have been as clear to the average reader in England of 1761 — as clear to George III himself - as brillig and slithy would have been to us, had not Humpty Dumpty kindly explained them.""
"1. Portmanteau Words and Allomorphy - This paper is primarily concerned with the theoretical implications of what have been called portmanteau words (Hockett, 1947)"
"One reason for the popularity of portmanteau words in naming language hybrids may be the fact that the names themselves embody a type of hybridity."

Etymology

First used by Lewis Carroll in 1871, based on the concept of two words packed together, like a portmanteau (“a travelling case having two halves joined by a hinge”).

Inflected Forms

portmanteau words (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

univerbation

Synonyms

portmanteau blend blend word lexical blend amalgamation brunch word frankenword portmantologism telescope word

Questions

What does portmanteau word mean?: A word which combines the meaning of two words (or, rarely, more than two words), formed by combining the words, usually, but not always, by adjoining the first part of one word and the last part of the other, the adjoining parts often having a common vowel.
Where does portmanteau word come from?: First used by Lewis Carroll in 1871, based on the concept of two words packed together, like a portmanteau (“a travelling case having two halves joined by a hinge”).

How to pronounce portmanteau word

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