arrival
Americannoun
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the act or time of arriving
-
a person or thing that arrives or has arrived
-
the reaching of a condition or objective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of arrival
1350–1400; arrive + -al 2; replacing Middle English arivaille < Middle French
Explanation
An arrival is an entrance or an appearance — the act of showing up somewhere. Your arrival at your grandparents' house will no doubt be marked by great enthusiasm and many hugs. The process of arriving, or first getting to your destination, is arrival. Your sister's arrival at the airport might be delayed by bad weather, and your new kitten's arrival will be an exciting event for your whole family. Another kind of arrival is a person who's just arrived: "I easily picked her out from all the bus station arrivals."
Vocabulary lists containing arrival
List 3
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -al, -ial
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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:
The Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper, citing an unnamed South Korean government source, said Kim was greeted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang upon his arrival.
From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026
The arrival of Storm Boelo comes just a day after Storm Austen is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to parts of Ireland.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Kenyan authorities say they didn’t expect him, but were nonetheless ready to handle the health scare triggered by his arrival.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
As an adult, it remains challenging to coordinate schedules and availability, not to mention alignment with other critical details like preferred arrival times and seating/standing location.
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026
The fire just wasn’t the main reason for his late arrival.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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It described her daughters’ arrivals and noted that her husband had continued to appear outside the home.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026
A preliminary estimate of international arrivals to Canada by air and land totaled 5.3 million in September, up 9.5% on-year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
“They equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country,” the company said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Instead, the largest increases occurred around predictable events such as keeper arrivals and times when the animals were moved between areas of their habitat.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
A guard, escorting the arrivals to their cells, introduced them: “Mr. York, Mr. Latham, I’d like you to know Mr. Smith here. And Mr. Hickock. And Mr. Lowell Lee Andrews— ‘the nicest boy in Wolcott!’”
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.