Meaning
In British English, a return ticket is a ticket that covers travel to a destination and back again, corresponding broadly to a round-trip ticket in American English.
How it is used
Cambridge Dictionary distinguishes the UK meaning of return ticket—a ticket for travel to a place and back again—from an American sense referring specifically to the return part of a journey. Collins independently defines the British term as a ticket entitling a passenger to travel to a destination and back and gives round-trip ticket as the US and Canadian equivalent.
Examples
- “A return ticket to Oxford, please.”
- “Do you need a single or a return ticket?”
- “I bought a return ticket for the journey.”
Pronunciation
/rɪˈtɜːn ˌtɪk.ɪt/ · ri-TURN TIK-it
Tone and register
Neutral, standard, and practical British travel vocabulary. Return ticket is not slang.
Visitor guidance
Visitors can understand return ticket as broadly equivalent to round-trip ticket in a British travel context and contrast it with a single ticket for one-way travel. Do not infer fare flexibility, validity periods, permitted routes, refundability, peak restrictions, reservations, or whether a return is cheaper than separate tickets from the phrase alone; those conditions vary by operator and fare product and require current information.
Cultural context
Return ticket is useful visitor vocabulary because it appears at railway stations, bus services, ticket offices, booking sites, and in ordinary travel planning. The phrase can be especially confusing for American speakers because return ticket may suggest only the journey back in US usage, whereas the normal British meaning covers both outward and return travel.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.