Meaning of port in English

port

noun

/pɔːrt/ uk

/pɔːt/

port noun (TOWN)

Add to word list Add to word list

B1 [ C or U ]

a town by the sea or by a river that has a harbor, or the harbor itself:

a naval/fishing/container port

We had a good view of all the ships coming into/leaving port.

More examplesFewer examples

The pipeline was constructed to transport oil across Alaska to ports on the coast.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the village was a bustling river port.
This is one of the furthermost ports of northern Europe.
The Estonian port of Tallinn was blockaded for a time by Soviet warships.
At the port she managed to get a passage on an outward-bound ship.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Ports & docks

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Towns & regions: towns, cities & villages (general)

port noun (CONNECTION)

[ C ] computing specialized

a part of a computer where wires from other pieces of equipment, such as a printer, can be connected

kreci/iStock/Getty Images Plus/GettyImages

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Computer hardware

See more results »

port noun (LEFT)

[ U ] sailing specialized

the left side of a ship or aircraft

Opposite

starboard

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Parts of ships & boats

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Air travel: parts of airplanes

port noun (WINE)

[ U ]

a strong, sweet wine made in Portugal

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Wines & winemaking

See more results »

port noun (BAG)

[ C ] Australian English

a case or bag

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Containers for carrying personal possessions

See more results »

Idioms

a port in a storm

any port in a storm

(Definition of port from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

port | Intermediate English

port

noun

/pɔrt, poʊrt/

port noun (CITY)

Add to word list Add to word list

[ C/U ]

a city or town that has a harbor (= sheltered area of water where ships can load or unload) on the sea or a river, or the harbor itself:

[ C ] a fishing/naval port

port noun (CONNECTION)

[ C ] technology

a part of a computer where wires can be connected in order to control other pieces of equipment, such as a printer

port noun (LEFT)

[ U ]

the left side of a ship or aircraft as you are facing forward

(Definition of port from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

port | Business English

port

noun

/pɔːt/ us

Add to word list Add to word list

[ C or U ] TRANSPORT

an area of water and the land and buildings surrounding it, where ships can take on and off goods and passengers:

Ports along the Mississippi River handle 56 percent of the nation's grain shipments.

come into/leave port Officials moved to stop the ship from leaving port.

port officials/security

[ C ] TRANSPORT

a town that has such an area:

important East-Coast ports such as Baltimore

[ C ] IT

a part of a computer where you can connect another piece of equipment, such as a printer or screen:

A DVI monitor port lets you connect a digital LCD monitor.

See also

free port
home port
parallel port
serial port

port

verb [ T ]

/pɔːt/ us

IT, COMMUNICATIONS

to move software, a phone number, etc. to another system, without it being changed:

port sth to sth Our staff will check if your number can be ported to another operator who will help you with the process.

(Definition of port from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of port

port

So, fine, the em dash is easy to turn to -- any port will do in a storm.

From Slate Magazine

The space shuttle pulls into port for the last time.

From CBS News

It has history as a slaving port too.

From NPR

The question was, should they close the port?

From Wired

A coalition of ports and businesses that use the river have pushed hard for the deepening to allow larger ship.

From OregonLive.com

It has the ports to hook up a display and a mouse, but you will need to buy those separately.

From ABC News

Those studies forced the port to include an array of new restrictions on the project before it was approved in 2008.

From Los Angeles Times

That was a 95 percent drop from the average annual catch of 75,000 at those same ports between 1986 and 2003, according to state data.

From MLive.com

Developing a game to work on one platform is hard, never mind porting to similar platforms.

From TechCrunch

By 2030, those countries would have been able to access one another's ports with next to no tariffs or other restrictions.

From The New Yorker

Connections between servers are no longer statically assigned to specific physical switch ports.

From CNET

And a single port will make charging your phone while listening to music a new problem.

From The Verge

Employing just a small company of eight actors, the production, set in some hard-to-place semi-modern port town, exponentially increases the zaniness through double-casting.

From Los Angeles Times

I didn't try to port a number over to it.

From CNET

The port served as a conduit for the borrowing; the full faith and credit of the museum are on the line.

From Plain Dealer

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with port

port

These are words often used in combination with port.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

busy port

Amble was once a busy port for the coal trade.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

coastal ports

They will be making arrangements for tribunal hearings to take place in all the major coastal ports.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

container port

As has been noted, it is the eighth largest trading nation in the world and has the world's largest container port.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

See all collocations with port

What is the pronunciation of port?

Translations of port

in Chinese (Traditional)

城鎮, 港市, 港…

Meaning of port in English

port noun (TOWN)

port noun (CONNECTION)

port noun (LEFT)

port noun (WINE)

port noun (BAG)

Idioms

port | Intermediate English

port noun (CITY)

port noun (CONNECTION)

port noun (LEFT)

port | Business English

Examples of port

Collocations with port

port

Translations of port

Browse

Learn more with +Plus

Learn more with +Plus