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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
The directive advises officers arriving at a scene to assess whether a dog may be present and reminds them their main concern upon arrival is “safety.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 20, 2026
Strasbourg had initially been confident of keeping him following his January arrival, but O'Neil will return to the Premier League for the first time since leaving Wolves in December 2024.
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2026
But it also marked the arrival of Kevin Warsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve, an event that is bringing a momentous change in the way the central bank will operate.
From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026
When it first appeared on shelves most of the country wasn’t clamoring for domestic malts, and so the Notch’s arrival went largely ignored by a bourbon-swigging public.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 16, 2026
Then with the arrival of a frantic message, Jennings remembered, everything changed.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
