passout
In Indian English, a 'passout' refers to someone who has graduated from a school, college, or training institution — a graduate or alumnus.
Definitions
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.
She's a 2019 passout from IIT Bombay and was hired immediately after campus placements.
Comments
(India) A graduate.
"passout" means: A graduate.. This is a fairly neutral word with no inherent risk attached. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than something dangerous. If your child uses it, context will usually make the meaning clear. A brief, curious question about where they heard it is generally enough to know whether to follow up.
"passout" means: A graduate.. Register: neutral, standard English, usable in most everyday contexts. A common non-native mistake is to use the word in the wrong register, or to assume one fixed meaning when it is actually polysemous; always check the surrounding register and the audience before producing it yourself. In formal writing, prefer a neutral synonym or a short descriptive phrase, and use this word only when you have heard or read it being used naturally in a comparable context.
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- passed out84%
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.
- pass out66%
(intransitive) To faint; to become unconscious.
- passman65%
(Britain, archaic) One who passes a university degree, but without honours.
- pass degree64%
In the British university system, a pass degree is an undergraduate qualification obtained without honors classification — below a third-class honors degree. It is awarded when a student completes the required coursework but does not reach the standard for an honors classification. The term carries some stigma in academic circles, as honors degrees are the norm, but a pass degree is still a legitimate qualification.