visual

American  

[vizh-oo-uhl] / ˈvɪʒ u əl /

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.

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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.

2. a rough, preliminary sketch of an advertising layout, showing possible arrangements of material.

3. any item or element depending on the sense of sight.

visual British  

/ ˈvɪʒʊəl, -zjʊ- /

adjective

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

   visual powers

   visual steering

2. another word for optical

3. capable of being seen; visible

4. of, occurring as, or induced by a mental image

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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

Other Word Forms

• nonvisual
  adjective
• subvisual
  adjective
• supervisual
  adjective
• unvisual
  adjective
• supervisually
  adverb
• unvisually
  adverb
• visually
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of visual

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

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Explanation

If you want to know the meaning of visual, just look around! Anything you can see falls under the heading of visual. What "aural" is to the ears and "olfactory" is to the nose, visual is to the eyes. It's often said that "film is a visual medium"; it uses pictures to tell a story. You have to see it to get it. That's clearly different from, say, radio which can only use audio. Have you ever closed your eyes while watching a cartoon? If you cut out the visual parts and just listen to the music and sound effects, it's often even funnier. As zany as the sounds are, they're even funnier when you separate them from their visual cues. Visual shares its root with vision, which is (not surprisingly) the ability to see. How visual!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

visual

Bit by bit, Disney is continuing to shape itself into something more like its former nemesis, Netflix, including by diving more into the vertical-video and A.I. future while licensing visual podcasts as TV shows.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

Mahmood says he has criticisms of the film, such as a weak story, but thinks the attention to the "visual identity" of Street Fighter is impressive.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

Stair-climbing has stumped the robotics field for decades, as the activity requires continuous center-of-gravity shifts and visual information processing.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

They also said programming spanning fashion, film, food, music, performing and visual art, will be announced in 2027.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

Yet, in interviews with police officers who have been involved with shootings, these same details appear again and again: extreme visual clarity, tunnel vision, diminished sound, and the sense that time is slowing down.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

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