homecoming

[hohm-kuhm-ing]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR homecoming ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a return to one's home; arrival at home.

an annual event held by a college, university, or high school for visiting alumni.

Origin of homecoming

1325–75; 1930–35 for def 2; Middle English homcomyng; replacing Middle English hamcume, Old English hāmcyme, equivalent to hām home + cyme arrival; see come, -ing¹

Related formshome·com·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for homecoming

return, appearance, advent, landing, meeting, influx, arrival, entry, rebound, restoration, recovery, reconciliation, ingress, occurrence, entrance, accession, approach, happening, debarkation, disembarkation

Examples from the Web for homecoming

Contemporary Examples of homecoming

The Temple University concert represented something of a homecoming for Coltrane.
What if Jazz Giant John Coltrane Had Lived?
Ted Gioia
September 14, 2014
His homecoming is breezily explained at the start of the episode.
The Return of New Girl’s Coach…and of Faith in the Still-Great Comedy
Kevin Fallon
November 6, 2013
For Lennon, who had not set foot in Britain for nine years, there must have been something of a homecoming feel to the experience.
How John Lennon Rediscovered His Music in Bermuda
The Telegraph
November 3, 2013
The girl's 21-year-old elder sister told The Daily Beast: "We are going to have a big party tonight to celebrate her homecoming."
Blonde Child Reunited With Roma Family After Irish Police Blunder
Tom Sykes
October 23, 2013
How did the Marines you interviewed describe the homecoming process?
A Troubled Iraq War Vet Returns Home in Roxana Robinson’s ‘Sparta’
Jane Ciabattari
June 3, 2013

Historical Examples of homecoming

All the gladness seemed to have been taken out of the homecoming.
The Little Colonel
Annie Fellows Johnston
Finally, it would be a great and glad surprise for Betty on her homecoming.
The Fortune Hunter
Louis Joseph Vance
To Jerry the homecoming was even sweeter than she had dreamed.
Highacres
Jane Abbott
To them the Utopia of life would have been their homecoming.
On the Heels of De Wet
The Intelligence Officer
Rome had acclaimed the Cæsar and rejoiced over his homecoming.
"Unto Caesar"
Baroness Emmuska Orczy

British Dictionary definitions for homecoming

homecoming

noun

the act of coming home

US an annual celebration held by a university, college, or school, for former students

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for homecoming

mid-13c. in literal sense of "a coming home," from home (n.) + present participle of come. Cf. Old English hamcyme "return." Attested from 1935 in U.S. high school dance sense. Used earlier in Britain in reference to the annual return of natives to the Isle of Man.