port of entry

noun phrase

1

: a place where foreign goods may be cleared through a customhouse

2

: a place (such as an airport or border crossing) where a person may be permitted to enter a country

Examples of port of entry in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The order exempts stops at ports of entry, checkpoints and other functional equivalents of the border. — Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026

Rather than avoid the border, the two presented themselves at a legal port of entry without documents. — Don Bacon, Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2026

Data indicate that most of the arrests made by the San Diego division this year occurred in the city of San Diego, including hundreds in San Ysidro, home to the nation’s busiest land port of entry. — Alexandra Mendoza, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Sep. 2026

The department’s Community Partnership Bureau Counterfeit and Piracy Enforcement Team (CAPE) was tipped off in early August to a shipment that was intercepted at one of the Golden State’s ports of entry. — Kate Nishimura, Footwear News, 2 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1714, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for port of entry

• complementary
• elementary
• gentry
• sentry