Passing may refer to:

Social identity

Passing (sociology) Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category, such as racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age or disability status, that is often different fro ...

, presenting oneself as a member of another sociological group **

Passing (gender) In the context of gender, passing is someone being perceived as a gender they identify as or are attempting to be seen as, rather than their sex assigned at birth. Historically, this was common among women who served in occupations where they w ...

, presenting oneself as being cisgender **

Passing (racial identity) In the United States of America, racial passing occurred when a person who was categorized as Black in regard to their race in the United States of America, sought to be accepted or perceived (" to pass") as a member of another racial group, u ...

, presenting oneself as a member of another race

Literature and film

* ''Passing'' (novel), a novel by Nella Larsen ** ''Passing'' (film), directed by Rebecca Hall (2021), based on Larsen's novel

Math and technology

Message passing In computer science, message passing is a technique for invoking behavior (i.e., running a program) on a computer. The invoking program sends a message to a process (which may be an actor or object) and relies on that process and its supporting ...

, a form of communication in computer science *

Token passing On a local area network, token passing is a channel access method where a packet called a ''token'' is passed between nodes to authorize that node to communicate. In contrast to polling access methods, there is no pre-defined "master" node. The mos ...

, a channel access method in telecommunications * Variational message passing, a mathematical technique for continuous-valued Bayesian networks

Sports

Passing (sports) Passing is a common technique in sports that use balls and pucks. A pass consists of an intentional transfer of the ball from one player to another of the same team. Examples of sports that involve passing are association football, basketball, ...

, to pass a ball or puck between members of the same team **

Passing (American football) American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

Passing (association football) Passing the ball is a key part of association football. The purpose of passing is to keep possession of the ball by maneuvering it on the ground between different players with the objective of advancing it up the playing field. Passing brings an ...

, or soccer *

Passing (juggling) Passing is the act of juggling between two or more people. It is most commonly seen as a subset of toss juggling. Passing Passing can be performed with three or more juggling props but is most commonly performed with six objects such as ball ...

, when two or more people share a juggling pattern

Transportation

* Passing,

overtaking Overtaking or passing is the act of one vehicle going past another slower moving vehicle, travelling in the same direction, on a road. The lane used for overtaking another vehicle is often a passing lane farther from the road shoulder, which ...

, the act of driving around a slower automobile *

Passing lane A passing lane (North American English), overtaking lane (English outside North America) is a lane on a multi-lane highway or motorway closest to the median of the road (the central reservation) used for passing vehicles in other lanes. (North Ame ...

, a lane on a road for use while overtaking *

Passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains o ...

, a section of railway where trains can pass each other

Other uses

Buck passing Buck passing, or passing the buck, or sometimes (playing) the blame game, is the act of attributing to another person or group one's own responsibility. It is often used to refer to a strategy in power politics whereby a state tries to get anothe ...

, or passing the buck, transferring responsibility to another * Passing away,

euphemism A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

for "

dying Dying is the final stage of life which will eventually lead to death. Diagnosing dying is a complex process of clinical decision-making, and most practice checklists facilitating this diagnosis are based on cancer diagnoses. Signs of dying ...

" * A syncope is an instance of passing out, also called fainting or losing consciousness *

Passing off Passing off is a common law tort which can be used to enforce unregistered trade mark rights. The tort of passing off protects the Goodwill (accounting), goodwill of a trader from misrepresentation. The law of passing off prevents one trader f ...