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 and/or disability status, that is often different ...

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

Passing (gender) In the context of gender, passing is when someone is perceived as a gender or sex other than the sex they were assigned at birth. Historically, this was common among women who served in occupations where women were prohibited, such as in comba ...

, presenting oneself as being cisgender **

Passing (racial identity) Racial passing occurs when a person classified as a member of a Race (human categorization), racial group is accepted or perceived ("passes") as a member of another. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to descr ...

, 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 supporti ...

, 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 Variational message passing (VMP) is an approximate inference technique for continuous- or discrete-valued Bayesian networks, with conjugate-exponential parents, developed by John Winn. VMP was developed as a means of generalizing the approximate v ...

, 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) **

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 a ...

, or soccer * Passing (juggling), 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 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 or ...

, 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 for " 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 of a trader from misrepresentation. The law of passing off prevents one trader from misrepresenting ...