rendezvous
Americannoun
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rendezvous
plural
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an agreement between two or more persons to meet at a certain time and place.
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the meeting itself.
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a place designated for a meeting or assembling, especially of troops or ships.
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a meeting of two or more spacecraft in outer space.
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a favorite or popular gathering place.
verb (used with or without object)
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rendezvous,
present (3rd person singular)
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rendezvoused,
past participle, past
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rendezvousing
present participle
noun
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a meeting or appointment to meet at a specified time and place
-
a place where people meet
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an arranged meeting of two spacecraft
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rendezvoussimple
-
have rendezvousedperfect
-
has rendezvousedperfect
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am rendezvousingprogressive
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are rendezvousingprogressive
-
is rendezvousingprogressive
-
have been rendezvousingperfect progressive
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has been rendezvousingperfect progressive
Past
-
rendezvousedsimple
-
had rendezvousedperfect
-
was rendezvousingprogressive
-
were rendezvousingprogressive
-
had been rendezvousingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rendezvous
1585–95; < Middle French, noun use of rendez-vous (imperative) present or betake yourselves; see render 1
Explanation
Rendezvous is a very French way to say "meeting" or "date." So go ahead and call your next dentist appointment or lunch date with friends a rendezvous. In the 1590s, rendezvous meant “a place for assembling of troops.” And you'll still hear military tacticians talking about "rendezvous points" today. But more often we use rendezvous to describe an assembling of friends, an appointment, or a date with your secret lover. If you're feeling extra Frenchy, you can use rendezvous as a verb, as in "Let's rendezvous next Saturday at the mall."
Vocabulary lists containing rendezvous
The Silent Treatment: Words Plagued by Silent Letters
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Hamilton
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"Of Plymouth Plantation," Vocabulary from the historical account
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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:
NASA's live coverage will resume as Dragon approaches the station for rendezvous and docking.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
That is where it will rendezvous and dock with the prototype lunar landers, called pathfinders.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Discovery is known for flying more miles in space than any other shuttle orbiter, carrying the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit and making an early rendezvous with Russia’s Mir space station.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Zambada has said that he agreed to rendezvous with Guzmán outside Culiacán, the Sinaloa state capital, because he had been told that Rocha Moya would be there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
The final flight of the Apollo series took place in 1975, when a command module made a rendezvous with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
Still, the hotel maintained its sentimental pull as the place where your parents honeymooned; where you spent your first night in the big city; where you rendezvoused with friends.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
The four of us have rendezvoused here, about three hours south of Salt Lake City, for a three-day canyoneering trip.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2022
They rendezvoused in western Ukraine, after he had managed to board an evacuation train out of the besieged city of Kharkiv, where the family lived.
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2022
A few miles offshore, in the Malacca Strait, each rendezvoused with a second, empty tanker that had pulled alongside.
From Reuters ● Jun. 12, 2020
Climbing to twenty thousand feet, he rendezvoused with nine other Skyhawks headed for North Vietnam.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
The crew will then spend a little less than a full day in orbit before rendezvousing with the International Space Station.
From The Verge ● Oct. 29, 2021
We had planned to meet at the Nice airport, but after a flight delay, I ended up rendezvousing with them in Antibes.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2018
He stated that he was arrested as he was rendezvousing with a 35-year-old former North Korean solider, who was giving him a USB stick and camera containing military secrets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2016
Bowie reportedly wrote this song after seeing a couple rendezvousing under the Berlin Wall and imagining their story.
From Time ● Jan. 11, 2016
All the troops rendezvousing at Annapolis are to be under his command, to be called the Coast Division.
From The Drummer Boy by J. T. (John Townsend) Trowbridge
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.
