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  1. portmanteau word love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words, as chortle, from chuckle and snort.

Wiktionary

  1. n. linguistics A word which combines the meaning of two words (or, rarely, more than two words), formed by combining the words, usually, but not always, by adjoining the first part of one word and the last part of the other, the adjoining parts often having a common vowel; for example, smog, formed from smoke and fog.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings

Etymologies

  1. Coined by Lewis Carroll in 1872, based on the concept of two words packed together, like a portmanteau (a travelling case having two halves joined by a hinge). (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “Daisy was to be the Prioress – because she is good, and has "a soft little red mouth," and H.O. would be the Manciple (I don't know what that is), because the picture of him is bigger than most of the others, and he said Manciple was a nice portmanteau word – half mandarin and half disciple.”

    The Wouldbegoods

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. amalgamation
  1. portmanteau
  1. blend
  1. frankenword

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. coinage
  1. neologism
  1. neology

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. telescope-word
  1. Spork

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Lists

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‘portmanteau word’ has been looked up 1723 times, loved by 4 people, added to 12 lists, commented on 2 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.