arrival
Americannoun
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the act or time of arriving
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a person or thing that arrives or has arrived
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the reaching of a condition or objective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of arrival
1350–1400; arrive + -al 2; replacing Middle English arivaille < Middle French
Explanation
An arrival is an entrance or an appearance — the act of showing up somewhere. Your arrival at your grandparents' house will no doubt be marked by great enthusiasm and many hugs. The process of arriving, or first getting to your destination, is arrival. Your sister's arrival at the airport might be delayed by bad weather, and your new kitten's arrival will be an exciting event for your whole family. Another kind of arrival is a person who's just arrived: "I easily picked her out from all the bus station arrivals."
Vocabulary lists containing arrival
List 3
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -al, -ial
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After Hugheston-Roberts shared news of the heron's arrival in Caernarfon, word spread.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
The Amaterasu particle has been especially difficult to explain because its estimated arrival direction traces back to a cosmic void, a region of space with no clear source capable of producing ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays.
From Science Daily • Jun. 9, 2026
His arrival at Adobe came at the dawn of software-as-a service, which at the time was a revolutionary shift toward monetizing software via subscription business models.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei complained on Sunday that the process of obtaining visas had delayed his team's arrival by a week.
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
Her arrival in America is covered by nationwide news outlets, including Time, Reader’s Digest, and all the major daily newspapers of the time.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
