1. plural of portmanteau; large traveling bags or suitcases
Usage: formal
2. plural of portmanteau; words formed by blending parts of two other words
Usage: linguistics

Examples

• The wealthy travelers packed their clothes in elegant leather portmanteaux.
• Victorian ladies required several portmanteaux for extended journeys.
• The hotel porter struggled with the heavy portmanteaux.
• Linguists study portmanteaux like ‘brunch’ and ‘smog’ as examples of word formation.
• Lewis Carroll created many portmanteaux in his writing, including ‘slithy’ from ‘slimy’ and ‘lithe’.
• Modern English contains numerous portmanteaux that we use without thinking about their origins.