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In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Alice asks Humpty Dumpty to explain words from the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" and is told that slithy is "like a portmanteau-there are two meanings packed up into one word." Although slithy hasn't caught on (it's made up of slimy and lithe, according to Humpty Dumpty), another portmanteau invented by Carroll has in fact found a place in the language: chortle (supposedly from chuckle and snort). English includes other portmanteaus, too, such as brunch (breakfast and lunch) and dramedy (drama and comedy). Following Carroll's lead, English speakers have come to call these fairly common words by the not-so-common name for a type of traveling bag with two compartments. The technical (and simpler) term for such words is blend.

Examples of portmanteau in a Sentence

Noun carried her possessions with her in an old portmanteau

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun That nickname is a portmanteau of Bombay, a center of filmmaking that is now called Mumbai, and Hollywood. — Rajesh Roy, WSJ, 13 Sep. 2022 The word is a portmanteau or a combination of two words — glamorous and camping. — Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY, 11 Sep. 2022 Soca, a portmanteau of ‘Soul of Calypso,’ was birthed from a fusion of African and East Indian rhythms. — Melissa Noel, Essence, 2 Sep. 2022 Other names for the practice include nibbling, pick-up meal, alchemy, kitchen sink, deja vu and the fun portmanteau, plannedovers. — G. Daniela Galarza, Washington Post, 21 July 2022 More:Juneteenth festivities in Milwaukee will be a celebration of freedom but also an opportunity to educate Juneteenth, a portmanteau of June and the date of the 19th, commemorates when the last remaining slaves were freed in the United States. — La Risa R. Lynch, Journal Sentinel, 20 June 2022 The winery was the first to use the word Meritage — a portmanteau of merit and heritage — on its Bordeaux-style red wines. — Washington Post, 5 May 2022 The term is a portmanteau of oligarch and siloviki, a Russian word for the country’s military and security elite. — John Hyatt, Forbes, 14 Mar. 2022 In between public displays of French kissing and a multitude of designer fittings, Fox even christened herself and Ye with their very own portmanteau. — Glenn Rowley, Billboard, 7 Feb. 2022 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective So many of the words created our dozens of neologism contests over the decades are portmanteau words, the combination of two words. — Washington Post, 18 July 2019 So many of the words created our dozens of neologism contests over the decades are portmanteau words, the combination of two words. — Washington Post, 18 July 2019 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'portmanteau.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.