arrive
verb (used without object)
to come to a certain point in the course of travel; reach one's destination.
arrive
1 American
[uh-rahyv]
/ əˈraɪv /
verb (used without object)
-
arrives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
arrived,
past participle, past
-
arriving
present participle
-
to come to a certain point in the course of travel; reach one's destination.
He finally arrived in Rome.
-
to come to be near or present in time.
The moment to act has arrived.
-
to attain a position of success, power, achievement, fame, or the like.
After years of hard work, she has finally arrived in her field.
-
Archaic. to happen.
It arrived that the master had already departed.
verb (used with object)
-
arrives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
arrived,
past participle, past
-
arriving
present participle
verb phrase
arrivé
2
American
[ar-ee-vey, a -r ee-vey]
/ ˌær iˈveɪ, a riˈveɪ /
noun
-
arrivés
plural
arrive
British
/ əˈraɪv /
verb
-
to come to a certain place during or after a journey; reach a destination
-
(foll by at) to agree upon; reach
to arrive at a decision
-
to occur eventually
the moment arrived when pretence was useless
-
informal (of a baby) to be born
-
informal to attain success or gain recognition
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
arrivesimple
-
arrivessimple
-
have arrivedperfect
-
has arrivedperfect
-
am arrivingprogressive
-
are arrivingprogressive
-
is arrivingprogressive
-
have been arrivingperfect progressive
-
has been arrivingperfect progressive
Past
-
arrivedsimple
-
had arrivedperfect
-
was arrivingprogressive
-
were arrivingprogressive
-
had been arrivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of arrive1
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English a(r)riven, from Old French a(r)river, from Vulgar Latin arrīpāre (unrecorded) “to come to land,” verb derivative of Latin ad rīpam “to the riverbank”; cf. river 1
Origin of arrivé2
First recorded in 1920–25; from French: literally, “arrived,” noun use of past participle of arriver “to arrive”; see arrive
Explanation
To arrive is to come to a destination. When you arrive in Paris, the first thing you should do is go and buy a croissant. The word arrive generally means to come to a physical destination, like a place. Make sure you arrive home on time for dinner! But it can also be less literal. You can arrive at a conclusion or a decision after much thought. You can also use arrive to mean "achieve great success," though for whatever reason, this specific usage tends to be in the past tense. If you serve champagne and caviar at a party, your snobby aunt might comment, "My dear, you’ve arrived!” In this case, arrive means to come to a place of great wealth or success.
Vocabulary lists containing arrive
Beowulf vocabulary
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"The Lotus Seed"
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Greetings, World Traveler! — List 3
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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.
See Examples For:
Swinney insisted the government had sought to "minimise" costs, while Justice Secretary Neil Gray defended the business class flights as a means of ensuring ministers "arrive fresh" when they travel overseas.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
But both illustrate how valuable it has become for food companies to arrive earlier — to understand appetite not merely after a preference has been expressed, but while it is still taking shape.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
The cargo is typically loaded into box trucks, or hidden in nearby brush until the trucks arrive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
But arrive on the later side, and you might see a different crowd showing up—drawn not by Japanese-Californian seafood dishes, but by a craving for something sweet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
We arrive at a huddled stone cottage with a sloped thatched roof.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
However deep his ignorance, it could not possibly be more finished than mine some dozen years ago; and yet I may say, Je suis arrivé!
From About Orchids A Chat by Frederick Boyle
The triumphant words shouted out by the men seemed more sorrowful than those of the De profundis: Allons, enfants de la patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 33, December, 1873 by Various
He will arrivé back here to-night tired as a dog, but once more at daybreak it will be Dominique who sets forth to carry the wounded man up to Fort Amitié.
From Fort Amity by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
As I gently closed the door of the ward and stole out into the corridor on tip-toe, I heard again the martial chorus swelling into a tumult of joy: Le jour de gloire est arrivé!
From Leaves from a Field Note-Book by John Hartman Morgan
Once in a year, however, I as the French say, doesn't make a custom, and the Parisian crowd, to quote its own expression, "croit que c'est arrivé."
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 26, September, 1880 by Various
Meanwhile the leading men of the guilds had become hommes arrivés.
From German Culture Past and Present by Ernest Belfort Bax
The complaint arrives a year after the 2025 animated musical “KPop Demon Hunters” — which centered on Huntrix, a music trio who hunt demons — reached unprecedented heights, becoming Netflix’s most-watched animated original movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
“The dividend was never something that arrives automatically,” said Apoorva Jadhav, a demographer affiliated with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a U.S. think tank.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
But information arrives in fragments: a barcode result here, a recall notice there, a corrected FDA finding, a corporate statement, a congressional inquiry.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Once it arrives in the Middle East, it will be the third aircraft carrier in the area.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
I hope we’re gone by the time it arrives.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Boats that arrived in the UK from 20 August 2025 to 19 August 2026 carried an average of 68 people.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
After apparently topping off the tank, the Honda driver peeled off just as police arrived at the gas station.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The results from the retailers arrived as consumers are dealing with higher prices for basics.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Officials in all four states pushed back on Trump’s claims and said they didn’t understand how the administration arrived at those numbers.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
At last the doctor arrived, a freckled-faced boy in a military uniform.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Rather than arriving all at once, the list grew over several days as Brooks kept thinking of movies he wanted to add.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
When the 2016-17 campaign kicked off, Wenger, Guardiola, Mourinho, and Antonio Conte were all in the league, with Klopp arriving two months into the season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
In a study published in 2025, Hwang and his colleagues found that the frontoparietal cortex develops an ongoing high-level summary of information arriving from elsewhere in the brain.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
Panettiere’s high school hero emerged on TV during the “sheroes” era of the aughts, arriving in the wake of Sydney Bristow on “Alias” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” another cheerleader turned supernatural brawler.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
Lurleen finally came and brought Jimmie, and I escaped upstairs—above Snowberger’s, above the arriving food and gentle wishes—to a long bath with bubbles and then my lookout post in Great-great-aunt Florentine’s room.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
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.
