passenger

/ˈpæsndʒər/

/ˈpæsɛndʒə/

Other forms: passengers

A passenger is a person who rides in a vehicle. If you grab a ride home from school with your best friend, you are a passenger in her car.

Everyone riding in a train, plane, bus, or any other vehicle is a passenger — except the driver, pilot, or crew. A passenger's only job is to ride along. In the fourteenth century, a passenger was simply a "passer-by," from the Old French passagier, "passing, fleeting, or traveling." The first instance of the modern use was recorded in the early 1500s.

Definitions of passenger

1. noun

   a traveler riding in a vehicle (a boat or bus or car or plane or train etc) but not operating it
   synonyms: rider

   types:

   commuter

   someone who travels regularly from home in a suburb to work in a city

   fare

   a paying (taxi) passenger

   hitchhiker

   a person who travels by getting free rides from passing vehicles

   stowaway

   a person who hides aboard a ship or plane in the hope of getting free passage

   straphanger

   a standing subway or bus passenger who grips a hanging strap for support

   straphanger

   a commuter who uses public transportation

   type of:

   traveler, traveller

   a person who changes location