visitor
Americannoun
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visitors
plural
noun
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a person who pays a visit; caller, guest, tourist, etc
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another name for visitant
Synonym Usage
Visitor, caller, guest, visitant are terms for a person who comes to spend time with or stay with others, or in a place. A visitor often stays some time, for social pleasure, for business, sightseeing, etc.: a visitor at our neighbor's house. A caller comes for a brief (usually) formal visit: The caller merely left her card. A guest is anyone receiving hospitality, and the word has been extended to include anyone who pays for meals and lodging: a welcome guest; a hotel guest. Visitant applies especially to a migratory bird or to a supernatural being: a warbler as a visitant.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of visitor
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English visitour, from Anglo-French; Old French visiteor, from Late Latin vīsitātor, equivalent to Latin vīsitā(re) “to go to see, visit” ( see visit) + -tor -tor
Explanation
A visitor is someone who is in a place temporarily. If you spend a week on an island during the summer, you're a visitor there, unlike the people who live on the island year-round. When you visit someone, you're a visitor in their home, and if someone visits your school, whether to put on a puppet show or a book fair or a presentation about safety, they're a visitor too. It's also common to refer to an opposing sports team as visitors when they come to play on your team's home turf — but when your team travels for an away game, you're the visitors.
Vocabulary lists containing visitor
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.
See Examples For:
Ruth Watts is a health visitor who began sharing content on social media after becoming concerned about misinformation online.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The museum said this was because limits on how many hours of light the tapestry can be exposed to each week restricted visitor numbers.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
A new PGA Tour golf tournament made its debut in the city this month, helping lift visitor revenue during the important fall tourism push, the county’s tourism authority said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Every visitor must exit through the Blood Room, a gruesomely immersive space whose walls are streaked, smeared, splattered and practically dripping with the red stuff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
But he had a dim recollection of a frequent visitor to the Salon Carré.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
The London institution has announced changes to how visitors see the historic work over concerns of overcrowding.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
That set up a field goal drive and a fleeting 3-0 lead by the visitors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
The head of the British Museum has apologised for the experience some visitors have had at its blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
The visitors, who trailed by 19 in the third quarter, were behind by a touchdown when they took over at their 11 with 1:42 remaining.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
“For he describes Gallery Seventeen as ‘obscure and little trafficked,’ yet the guidebook makes such a to-do about going there, surely it must be overrun with visitors by now.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
