# ferry
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English ferien (“to carry, convey, convey in a boat”), from Old English ferian (“to carry, convey, bear, bring, lead, conduct, betake oneself to, be versed in, depart, go”), from Proto-West Germanic *farjan, from Proto-Germanic *farjaną (“to make or let go, transfer, ferry”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to bring or carry over, transfer, pass through”).
Cognate with German dialectal feren, fähren (“to row, sail”), Danish færge (“to ferry”), Swedish färja (“to ferry”), Icelandic ferja (“to ferry”), Norwegian Nynorsk/Norwegian Bokmål ferje (“to ferry”) Old Norse ferja. Related to fare.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /ˈfɛɹi/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /ˈfeɹi/
* Rhymes: -ɛɹi
** Homophone: fairy (only in accents with the Mary-marry-merry merger)

### Verb

ferry (third-person singular simple present ferries, present participle ferrying, simple past and past participle ferried)
* (transitive) To carry; transport; convey.
    Trucks plowed through the water to ferry flood victims to safety.
** 2007, Rick Bass, The Lives of Rocks:We ferried our stock in U-Haul trailers, and across the months, as we purchased more cowflesh from the Goat Man — meat vanishing into the ether again and again, as if into some quarkish void — we became familiar enough with Sloat and his daughter to learn that her name was Flozelle, and to visit with them about matters other than stock.
* (transitive) To move someone or something from one place to another, usually repeatedly.
    Being a good waiter takes more than the ability to ferry plates of food around a restaurant.
** 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. […] This would also let high-speed trains skirt cities as moving platforms ferry passengers to and from the city centre.
* (transitive) To carry or transport over a contracted body of water, as a river or strait, in a boat or other floating conveyance plying between opposite shores.
* (intransitive) To pass over water in a boat or by ferry.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:They ferry over this Lethean sound / Both to and fro.

#### Derived terms

* unferried

### Noun

ferry (plural ferries)
* (nautical) A boat or ship used to transport people, smaller vehicles and goods from one port to another, usually on a regular schedule.
    Hypernyms: boat; ship
    Coordinate terms: water bus, water taxi
    Near-synonym: ferryboat
** 2019 November 22, Ilaria Maria Sala, “After the Protests: How Will Hong Kong Vote?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-11-22, Opinion‎:To reach Mui Wo, a small town on Lantau Island, you take a ferry from central Hong Kong, and after a 30-minute ride arrive at a small square with a car park and bus stops blackened by fumes.
* A place where passengers are transported across water in such a ship.
** 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:It can pass the ferry backward into light.
** 1809, Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter:to row us o'er the ferry
** c. 1900, O. Henry, The Ferry of Unfulfilment:She walked into the waiting-room of the ferry, and up the stairs, and by a marvellous swift, little run, caught the ferry-boat that was just going out.
* The service constituted by this watercraft's operation; the business (company) that operates such a service.
    In those days there was a ferry at Sleepytown. Modern roads and bridges for motor vehicles have rendered such local river ferries obsolete.
* The legal right or franchise that entitles a corporate body or an individual to operate such a service: a right of ferry.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)

#### Derived terms

* Bonners Ferry
* Briton Ferry
* Broughty Ferry
* cable ferry
* car ferry
* chain ferry
* Connel Ferry
* cruiseferry
* ferriable
* ferriage
* ferryboat
* ferry bridge
* ferry car
* ferryhouse
* ferryman
* ferry railway
* ferry van
* ferry wagon
* ferrywoman
* Fiddler's Ferry
* Grove Ferry
* Harpers Ferry
* horse ferry
* Meikle Ferry
* Menzies Ferry
* Owston Ferry
* Queensferry
* Rock Ferry
* Stoke Ferry
* superferry
* train ferry
* West Ferry

#### Descendants

* → Bengali: ফেরি (pheri)
* → Catalan: ferri
* → French: ferry
* → Greek: φέρι (féri)
* → Japanese: フェリー (ferī)
* → Malay: feri
* → Portuguese: ferry
* → Spanish: ferri, ferry
* → Swahili: feri
* → Thai: เฟอร์รี (fəə-rîi)

#### Translations

Afrikaans: veer (af), veerboot (af)
Albanian: trap (sq) m
Arabic: مُعَدِّيَة f (muʕaddiya), عَبَّارَة f (ʕabbāra)
Gulf Arabic: عبارة f (ʕabbāra)
Armenian: լաստանավ (hy) (lastanav)
Azerbaijani: bərə (az)
Baekje: 津 (nari)
Belarusian: паро́м m (paróm)
Bulgarian: фе́рибот m (féribot)
Burmese: ကူးတို့ (my) (ku:tui.), ကူးတို့ဆိပ် (my) (ku:tui.hcip)
Catalan: bac (ca) m, rai (ca) m
Chechen: бурам (buram)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 渡船 (zh) (dùchuán), 渡輪 / 渡轮 (zh) (dùlún)
Czech: trajekt m, přívoz (cs) m
Danish: færge (da)
Dutch: veer (nl) n, veerpont (nl), pont (nl) c, pontveer n, veerboot (nl), ferry (nl), ferryboot (nl)
Egyptian: (ḏꜣt f)
Esperanto: pramo
Estonian: parvlaev, praam
Finnish: lautta (fi), autolautta (fi)
French: bac (fr) m, ferry (fr) m, transbordeur (fr) m
Galician: transbordador m
Georgian: ბორანი (ka) (borani)
German: Fähre (de) f
Greek: πορθμείο (el) n (porthmeío)
Ancient: πορθμεῖον n (porthmeîon), πέραμα n (pérama)
Hebrew: מעבורת \ מַעְבֹּרֶת (he) f (ma'bóret)
Hindi: फ़ेरी f (ferī), यात्री-नौका f (yātrī-naukā), जलयान (hi) m (jalyān)
Hungarian: komp (hu)
Icelandic: ferja (is) f
Indonesian: kapal (id) feri (id)
Irish: bád calaidh m, carrchaladh m (car ferry)
Italian: traghetto (it) m
Japanese: フェリー (ja) (ferī), 渡し船 (ja) (わたしぶね, watashibune), 渡船 (ja) (とせん, tosen)
Kazakh: сал қайық (sal qaiyq), паром (parom)
Khmer: កប៉ាល់ចម្លង (kaʼpal cɑmlɑɑng), ទូកចម្លង (tuuk cɑmlɑɑng)
Korean: 나룻배 (ko) (narutbae), 수송선(輸送船) (ko) (susongseon), 연락선(連絡船) (yeollakseon), 페리 (peri), 나루배 (narubae) (North Korea)
Kyrgyz: паром (parom)
Lao: ສັດຈອງ (sat chǭng)
Latin: pontō m
Latvian: prāmis m
Limburgish: vaer (li) n
Lithuanian: keltas (lt) m
Luxembourgish: Fähr f
Macedonian: траект m (traekt)
Malay: feri (ms)
Malayalam: കടത്ത് (ml) (kaṭattŭ)
Maori: waka whakawhiti, waka kōpiko
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: гаталга онгоц (gatalga ongoc)
Navajo: tsin naaʼeeł diné bee nágéhé
Norwegian:
Bokmål: ferge m or f, ferje m or f
Nynorsk: ferje f
Occitan: bac m, transbordador m, ferri (oc) m
Ojibwe: aazhawaʼoodoon
Old East Slavic: поромъ m (poromŭ)
Pannonian Rusyn: траєкт m inan (trajekt)
Persian:
Iranian Persian: فَرابَر (fa) (farâbar), کَشْتیِ گُذارِه (kašti-ye gozâre)
Plautdietsch: Promm f
Polish: prom (pl)
Portuguese: balsa (pt) f
Romanian: bac (ro) n
Russian: паро́м (ru) m (paróm)
Scottish Gaelic: aiseag m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: тра̀јект m, ске̏ла f
Roman: tràjekt (sh) m, skȅla (sh) f
Slovak: trajekt m
Slovene: trajekt m
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: pśewóz m, prama f
Spanish: ferri (es) m, transbordador (es) m
Swahili: feri (sw)
Swedish: färja (sv)
Tagalog: tabaw, badeyo, bangkang pantawid, ferry
Tajik: паром (parom), киштии гузора (kišti-yi guzora)
Tamil: please add this translation if you can
Thai: เรือข้ามฟาก (rʉʉa-kâam-fâak), เรือจ้าง (rʉʉa-jâang), เฟอร์รี (fəə-rîi)
Tibetan: གྲུ་ཤན (gru shan)
Turkish: araba vapuru (tr)
Turkmen: parohod, parom
Ukrainian: поро́м m (poróm)
Urdu: فیری f (ferī)
Uyghur: پاروم (parom)
Uzbek: parom (uz)
Vietnamese: phà (vi)
Volapük: lovenaf (vo)
West Frisian: fear
Yiddish: פּראָם (prom), פּאַראָם (parom) :

### See also

* boat
* ship

### Anagrams

* Freyr, Fryer, fryer, refry

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from English ferry.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fɛ.ʁi/ ~ /fe.ʁi/

### Noun

ferry m (plural ferries or ferrys)
* ferry

#### Derived terms

* car-ferry

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English ferry.

### Pronunciation

* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈfɛ.ʁi/

### Noun

ferry m (plural ferries)
* ferry (boat)
    Synonym: ferryboat

### References

* ↑ “ferry”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
* ↑ “ferry”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

## Spanish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English ferry.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈferi/ [ˈfe.ri]
* Rhymes: -eri
* Syllabification: fe‧rry

### Noun

ferry m (plural ferrys or ferries)
* Alternative spelling of ferri

#### Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

### Further reading

* “ferry”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10