visitor
Americannoun
-
visitors
plural
noun
-
a person who pays a visit; caller, guest, tourist, etc
-
another name for visitant
Synonym Usage
Visitor, caller, guest, visitant are terms for a person who comes to spend time with or stay with others, or in a place. A visitor often stays some time, for social pleasure, for business, sightseeing, etc.: a visitor at our neighbor's house. A caller comes for a brief (usually) formal visit: The caller merely left her card. A guest is anyone receiving hospitality, and the word has been extended to include anyone who pays for meals and lodging: a welcome guest; a hotel guest. Visitant applies especially to a migratory bird or to a supernatural being: a warbler as a visitant.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of visitor
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English visitour, from Anglo-French; Old French visiteor, from Late Latin vīsitātor, equivalent to Latin vīsitā(re) “to go to see, visit” ( see visit) + -tor -tor
Explanation
A visitor is someone who is in a place temporarily. If you spend a week on an island during the summer, you're a visitor there, unlike the people who live on the island year-round. When you visit someone, you're a visitor in their home, and if someone visits your school, whether to put on a puppet show or a book fair or a presentation about safety, they're a visitor too. It's also common to refer to an opposing sports team as visitors when they come to play on your team's home turf — but when your team travels for an away game, you're the visitors.
Vocabulary lists containing visitor
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:
The decision to take the animals off Rhossili Common in Swansea follows months of disagreement, after concerns were raised about visitor safety and the number of horses grazing the National Trust-owned common.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The Hong Kong insurer’s Chinese mainland visitor business growth softened on a high base, the analyst notes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
It is "heartbreaking to see", said visitor Ahn Seung-hyun.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
The newcomer was KD1, a 4½-year-old eagle who has since become a repeat visitor to the aerie that’s livestreamed around the clock, earning its inhabitants worldwide internet fame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
But she guessed her visitor probably didn't even think of her as a friend anymore.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
The "Rimini Meeting" is a prominent event mixing religion, culture and politics that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
Last year it welcomed a record seven million international visitors.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
In a decade, the number of visitors grew sevenfold.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
The visitors continued to press, and Jasinski found himself in a scoring position again in the 10th minute, this time facing JT Marcinkowski.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Pale cabbages were stacked in mountains, dried roots looked like interplanetary visitors, but there was no Chicken.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
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.
