In Indian English: graduated from a university or training institution.
In Indian English: graduated from a university or training institution. "I passed out of IIT in 2018" means the speaker received their degree, not that they fainted in the building. The construction comes from the older British military and academy sense of "passing out" (completing the course of training and being commissioned), preserved in South Asian English long after it faded in modern British and American English. A constant source of confusion in international hiring conversations — British and American readers hear "lost consciousness" — and a classic example of Indian English keeping an older Commonwealth usage alive.
Add your own interpretation of "passed out".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.
Browse all slang words starting with P.
In Indian English, a 'passout' refers to someone who has graduated from a school, college, or training institution — a graduate or alumnus. The term is formed from the phrase 'to pass out of' an institution (i.e., to complete and exit). While 'passout' in British and American English typically means to lose consciousness, in South Asian English the educational sense is standard and widely understood. It is neutral in register and appears frequently in Indian job applications, resumes, and institutional communication.
(India) A graduate.
(intransitive) To faint; to become unconscious.
(slang) To fall asleep irrespective of wilful action, as a result of the consumption of alcohol or other drugs or another form of physiological exhaustion.
I passed out of Delhi University in 2019 with an honours degree in economics.
No comments yet — say something.