visit
Americanverb (used with object)
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visits,
present (3rd person singular)
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visited,
past participle, past
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visiting
present participle
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to go to and stay with (a person or family) or at (a place) for a short time for reasons of sociability, politeness, business, curiosity, etc..
to visit a friend; to visit clients; to visit Paris.
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to stay with as a guest.
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to come or go to.
to visit a church for prayer.
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to go to for the purpose of official inspection or examination.
a general visiting his troops.
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to come to in order to comfort or aid.
to visit the sick.
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to come upon; assail; afflict.
The plague visited London in 1665.
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to cause trouble, suffering, etc., to come to.
to visit him with sorrows.
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to access, as a website.
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to inflict, as punishment, vengeance, etc. (often followed by on orupon ).
verb (used without object)
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visits,
present (3rd person singular)
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visited,
past participle, past
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visiting
present participle
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to make a visit.
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to talk or chat casually.
to visit on the phone with a friend.
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to inflict punishment.
noun
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visits
plural
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the act of or an instance of visiting.
a nice, long visit.
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a chat or talk.
We had a good visit on the way back from the grocery store.
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a call paid to a person, family, etc.
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a stay or sojourn as a guest.
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an official inspection or examination.
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the act of an officer of a belligerent nation in boarding a vessel in order to ascertain the nature of its cargo, its nationality, etc..
the right of visit and search.
verb
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to go or come to see (a person, place, etc)
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to stay with (someone) as a guest
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to go or come to (an institution, place, etc) for the purpose of inspecting or examining
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(tr) (of a disease, disaster, etc) to assail; afflict
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(tr; foll by upon or on) to inflict (punishment, etc)
the judge visited his full anger upon the defendant
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archaic to afflict or plague (with punishment, etc)
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informal (often foll by with) to chat or converse (with someone)
noun
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the act or an instance of visiting
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a stay as a guest
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a professional or official call
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a formal call for the purpose of inspection or examination
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international law the right of an officer of a belligerent state to stop and search neutral ships in war to verify their nationality and ascertain whether they carry contraband
the right of visit and search
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informal a friendly talk or chat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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previsitnoun
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revisitverb
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intervisitverb (used without object)
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nonvisitingadjective
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unvisitedadjective
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unvisitingadjective
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visitableadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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visitsimple
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visitssimple
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have visitedperfect
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has visitedperfect
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am visitingprogressive
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are visitingprogressive
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is visitingprogressive
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have been visitingperfect progressive
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has been visitingperfect progressive
Past
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visitedsimple
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had visitedperfect
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was visitingprogressive
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were visitingprogressive
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had been visitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of visit
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English visiten (verb), from Old French visiter, from Latin vīsitāre “to see repeatedly,” from vīsere “to go to see,” from vidēre “to see”; noun derivative of the verb
Explanation
When you travel to another place, or spend some time at a friend's house, it's a visit. You should visit your grandmother! It's been a while since she's had a visit from you. Whenever you spend a temporary amount of time with another person or in another place, that's a visit — whether it's your visit to San Francisco or your visit to the doctor for a checkup. In some parts of the U.S., visit is also a name for a chat: "I had a nice visit with your Aunt Sylvia yesterday." And if you pay a visit to someone, you go see them for a while.
Vocabulary lists containing visit
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:
Min Aung Hlaing touched down on Wednesday, invited for a two-day visit to discuss thousands of Myanmar migrants being sent back under a repatriation scheme touted by Anwar.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
During his visit to Athens, Rubio announced $4 billion in U.S. military sales to Greece and a new counterterrorism information-sharing program.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Her children tried to visit the following day but got no response when they knocked on her door.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
What is a place or memory you always return to when you come back to visit?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Maybe someday I’ll give Emma a personal tour of Chicago and we can visit all my favorite spots.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
"There will be fewer potatoes grown going forward. They are a very expensive crop to grow," says Tim when the BBC visits his farm near Helmsley.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Navigators also helped make sure patients completed important follow-up steps after appointments, including glucose tolerance testing and subsequent medical visits.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
He has a good relationship with his parents and visits three times a year to help care for them.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
ER visits by immigrant patients eventually rebounded somewhat, but remained 10% lower than pre-enforcement levels in October 2025.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
The Underhill home filled with laughter as young nieces and nephews came for long visits.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Trump is not a fan of Camp David, having visited the presidential bolthole in the scenic Maryland hills near Washington on only a handful of occasions during his two terms in office.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
The BBC visited Lawat's village Betrawati just days after the disaster, once the roads to the district of Rasuwa had been cleared.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
When I first visited the kibbutz, in February 2024, only four of its houses were undamaged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Investigators with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control visited the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights that burned down this summer as part of a criminal probe on Tuesday, authorities said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
The masks he visited there were from what is today the country of Gabon, on the west coast of Africa.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Making his first film outside Romania, Mungiu had been intrigued by the 2015 case, visiting the Norwegian town where the incident occurred and speaking to family members, judges and journalists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The research team - which included visiting Belgium Masters student Florence Demoulin from the University of Liege - observed three adult male lions at Monarto Safari Park before and after whole carcasses were introduced.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
She even asked if she could have visiting rights, in a similar way to a parent in a divorce.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
ANN SIOCHI, a West Virginia resident, still plans on visiting Aspen next summer, during the closure, though she’ll be driving almost four hours from Denver International Airport to get there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
He was visiting the capital while on leave, or so he modestly explained as he helped unload their luggage from the cab.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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.
