visual

American  

[vizh-oo-uhl] / ˈvɪʒ u əl /

adjective

1. of or relating to seeing or sight.

   a visual image.

2. used in seeing.

   the visual sense.

3. optical.

4. perceptible by the sense of sight; visible.

   a visual beauty.

5. perceptible by the mind; of the nature of a mental vision.

   a visual impression captured in a line of verse.

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noun

1. Usually visuals.

   1. the picture elements, as distinguished from the sound elements, in films, television, etc.

   2. photographs, slides, films, charts, or other visual materials, especially as used for illustration or promotion.

2. a rough, preliminary sketch of an advertising layout, showing possible arrangements of material.

3. any item or element depending on the sense of sight.

visual British  

/ -zjʊ-, ˈvɪʒʊəl /

adjective

1. of, relating to, done by, or used in seeing

   visual powers

   visual steering

2. another word for optical

3. capable of being seen; visible

4. of, occurring as, or induced by a mental image

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noun

1. a sketch to show the proposed layout of an advertisement, as in a newspaper

2. (often plural) a photograph, film, or other display material

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• supervisually
  adverb
• unvisually
  adverb
• visually
  adverb
• supervisual
  adjective
• nonvisual
  adjective
• unvisual
  adjective
• subvisual
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of visual

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Late Latin vīsuālis, from vīsu(s) “sight” (noun use of past participle of vidēre “to see”) + -ālis -al ¹

Explanation

If you want to know the meaning of visual, just look around! Anything you can see falls under the heading of visual. What "aural" is to the ears and "olfactory" is to the nose, visual is to the eyes. It's often said that "film is a visual medium"; it uses pictures to tell a story. You have to see it to get it. That's clearly different from, say, radio which can only use audio. Have you ever closed your eyes while watching a cartoon? If you cut out the visual parts and just listen to the music and sound effects, it's often even funnier. As zany as the sounds are, they're even funnier when you separate them from their visual cues. Visual shares its root with vision, which is (not surprisingly) the ability to see. How visual!

Example Sentences

"We show the potential for reversing age-related vision loss," says Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

From Science Daily • Apr. 22, 2026

Visual media has been crucial in bridging that gap.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026

Visual elements that initially seem like clear products of a small budget actually show off what one can achieve with limited means.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2026

Visual navigation, matching what a camera sees to the landmarks on a map, has been in use for decades.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

Okay, so I'm sitting on the train and I fire.up my portable intending to spend a nice intensely focused time installing and playing with Visual J++6 on my slow beast of a laptop.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz