entrant

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from French entrant (“entering”), the present participle of entrer (“to enter”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} from Old French entrer, from Latin intrō (“to go into, enter”), from intrā (“within”).^[5] The revised OED (2018) instead treats it as formed within English from enter and the suffix -ant, comparing the earlier intrant and the Anglo-Norman and French noun entrant, used of a person entering a building from the late 12th century and of one joining an institution from the early 14th.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who joins or is admitted to an institution or profession: 1560, in John Knox's Buke of Discipline, originally in Scottish use.^[9] The other dictionaries date the word to the 17th century: Etymonline to the 1630s, Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1635 and Dictionary.com to 1625–35.^[5][3][8][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the noun was a legal term for a person who entered on land or property to assert ownership, a sense the Oxford Dictionary of English gives as the first and the Shorter Oxford calls long rare.^[9][7][6] The adjective, "entering", is recorded from 1635 but is now rare.^[9][6][5] The general sense of a person entering a room or building appears in 1764,^[9] and the now usual sense, a competitor entered in a race or contest, from 1838.^[9][5]

Timeline

• 1560 – a person who joins an institution or profession, originally Scottish.^[9]
• 1635 – adjective, entering.^[9]
• 1636 – in law, a person who takes possession of land (obsolete).^[9]
• 1764 – a person who enters a room or building.^[9]
• 1838 – a competitor in a race or contest.^[9][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing entered in a competition, race or examination; a contestant: The marathon drew more than two thousand entrants.^[4][3][9]
2. A person who joins a profession, organization or field; a newcomer: new entrants to the teaching profession.^[4][3][9]
3. A person who enters a place.^[4][9]
4. (law, obsolete) A person who enters on land to take possession of it.^[9][6]

Adjective

1. (rare) Entering; being an entrant.^[3][9][6]

Word family

• nonentrant
• reentrant

Related words

• enter
• entrance
• entry
• intrant

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press