pass
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To go past, by, over.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pasIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpæs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Pass over, across, or through
“We passed the point where the police car had parked.”
transitive
To go past, by, over, or through; to proceed from one side to the other of; to move past.
“A black limousine passed by when she looked out the window.”
Place into the hands or custody of
intransitive
To move or be moved from one place to another.
To change place.
Travel past
“The sports car passed all the trucks.”
noun
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.
A single passage of a tool over something, or of something over a tool.
A sexual advance (often in the phrase make a pass).
A single movement, especially of a hand, at, over, or along anything.
Success in an examination or similar test.
Permission or license to pass, or to go and come.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Pass over, across, or through
Used this way, pass is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“We passed the point where the police car had parked.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- return , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use pass
- “We passed the point where the police car had parked.”verb
- “A black limousine passed by when she looked out the window.”verb
- “The sports car passed all the trucks.”verb
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A play that involves one player throwing the ball to a teammate.
A person who passes by casually or by chance.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Lacking in energy or will.
Able to be passed or traversed or crossed.
In a passive manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Small hardy brown-and-grey bird native to Europe.
Eurasian sparrow smaller than the house sparrow.
An incidental remark.
A play that involves one player throwing the ball to a teammate.
A nonharmonic note inserted for transition between harmonic notes.
A play that involves one player throwing the ball to a teammate.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “pass” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.