visual

[ vizh-oo-uhl ]

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.

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. Compare audio, video.
2. a rough, preliminary sketch of an advertising layout, showing possible arrangements of material. Compare comprehensive ( def 5 ).
3. any item or element depending on the sense of sight.

visual

/ ˈvɪʒʊəl; -zjʊ- /

adjective

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

   visual powers

   visual steering

2. See optical
   another word for optical
3. capable of being seen; visible
4. of, occurring as, or induced by a mental image

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

Derived Forms

• ˈvisually, adverb

Other Words From

• non·visu·al adjective
• sub·visu·al adjective noun
• super·visu·al adjective
• super·visu·al·ly adverb
• un·visu·al adjective
• un·visu·al·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of visual¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of visual¹

C15: from Late Latin vīsuālis, from Latin vīsus sight, from vidēre to see

Example Sentences

The weekly slide shows published to Instagram will teach you the skills of a visual investigator.

From Washington Post

This will ensure no one misses any visual signals about what’s happening, allowing them to prepare for new material.

From Popular-Science

Google and Bing both use for visual search, Google has their Google Lens and Bing has their visual search.

From Search Engine Watch

Directed by Benoit Lalande, Nomad Africa is a visual experiment featuring surfer Alex Smith and the powerful waves and wilds of this ancient continent.

From Outside Online

For example, a system for diagnosing medical scans might first learn to identify basic visual features, such as shape and outline, by being pretrained on a database of everyday objects—such as ImageNet, which contains more than 14 million photos.

From MIT Technology Review

Bottom line is that it will only be a BVR [beyond visual range] airplane.

From The Daily Beast

Most of them were large birds—hawks, egrets, and even peacocks—for spectacular visual effect as they took flight.

From The Daily Beast

Instead, the writers had to rely on visual cues and ambiance.

From The Daily Beast

And since visual media is more compelling than any other medium, it is consistently their drug of choice.

From The Daily Beast

In movies, that language, visual and verbal, has yet to be mastered.

From The Daily Beast

He devoured it whole with a kind of visual gulp—a flash; the entire meaning first, then lines, then separate words.

From Project Gutenberg

This hour gives to the imaginative in every land a thrill, a yearning, and a pang of visual regeneration.

From Project Gutenberg

For this reason the photographic images are less sensitive to conditions affecting the seeing than the visual images.

From Project Gutenberg

For visual observation the Crossley telescope is provided with seven eyepieces, with powers ranging from 620 downward.

From Project Gutenberg

However the scout did not move toward it until after a long moment of both visual and mental inspection of his surroundings.

From Project Gutenberg