# port

> English word · Noun · IPA /pɔːt/ · frequency rank #1,913

## Definitions
1. A place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.
2. A town or city containing such a place, a port city.
3. The left-hand side of a vessel, including aircraft, when one is facing the front. Used to unambiguously refer to directions relative to the vessel structure, rather than to a person or object on board.
4. A sweep rower that primarily rows with an oar on the port side.

## Etymology
From Old English port, borrowed from Latin portus (“port, harbour”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”) (and thus a distant doublet of ford). The directional sense, attested since at least the 1500s, derives from ancient vessels with the steering oar on the right (see etymology of starboard), which therefore had to moor with their left sides facing the dock or wharf. Doublet of fjard, fjord, firth, ford, and Portus.

## Easily confused with
- **PR** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pr)
- **pt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pt)
- **put** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-put)
- **pro** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pro)
- **pot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pot)
- **pos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pos)
- **POW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pow)
- **POV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pov)
- **PST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pst)
- **PRC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-prc)
- **pry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pry)
- **pox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pox)
- **PRA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pra)
- **pur** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pur)
- **PRS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-prs)
- **PPT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-ppt)
- **post** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-post)
- **pure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pure)
- **pose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pose)
- **pour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/port-vs-pour)

## Common misspellings (5)
`oprt`, `porrt`, `portt`, `potr`, `pport`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/port