Other forms: passages
A passage is a way through — a corridor, or a route between two places. A narrow passage, the passage to the garden, a sea passage.
It is also a short piece of writing or music: read the passage, a passage from the second chapter. And it means the act of passing: the passage of time, the passage of a bill through parliament. Note passageway, which is only the corridor sense; rite of passage, meaning a ceremony or experience marking a change of status; and work your passage, meaning to earn your travel by labour.
1nouncorridorA way through, such as a corridor.
“The passage runs the whole length of the house.”
2nounpassageA short piece of writing or music.
“The teacher asked us to read the passage and answer the questions below it.”
3nounactThe act or process of passing.
“The passage of the bill took about two years.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
passage is a way through, or a section.
Old French passage comes from passer, to pass, from Latin passus, a step — the same root as pace and pass. Every sense is a moving through: down a corridor, across a sea, or from one part of a book to the next.
Old French
passage
English, today
passage
Built from
Borrowed into Middle English - from Old French passage, from passer (“to pass”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA