tour
Pluraltours
Pluraltours
- 1A journey to a series of places made by performers, a sports team, or a public figure, who give concerts, play matches, or make appearances along the way.
The orchestra's European tour included twelve concerts in three weeks.
After the album dropped, the singer announced a world tour.
UsageBands go on tour and are on tour; a tour of a country, a world tour.
- 2A visit to or through a building, place, or area to look at what is there, often led by a guide who explains what you see; it may also be virtual.
The walking tour included stops at three historic churches.
She booked a virtual tour of the gallery to view the paintings from home.
UsageTake or go on a tour; a tour of the museum, a guided tour.
- 3To travel around or through a place or a series of places, visiting and looking at them, or performing or competing in them.
The friends decided to tour through several countries by train.
She toured extensively before writing her travel book.
UsageOften used with a preposition: tour around the country, tour through Europe.
Note
It is the verb of performers and long-distance travelers, and it often stands alone, as when the Rolling Stones were still touring in their seventies.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The Rolling Stones continued touring in 2017, when all four members were in their seventies; the ages are confirmed separately below. en.wikipedia.org
- Mick Jagger was 74 when the September 2017 tour began, calculated from his birth date. en.wikipedia.org
- Keith Richards was 73 when the September 2017 tour began, calculated from his birth date. en.wikipedia.org
- Ronnie Wood was 70 when the September 2017 tour began, calculated from his birth date. en.wikipedia.org
- Charlie Watts was 76 when the September 2017 tour began, calculated from his birth date. en.wikipedia.org
- 4A street and road race, often spread across several days, as in competitive cycling.
The cyclist crashed on the final stage of the tour.
Each tour tests riders over mountains, flats, and time trials.
Note
Cycling uses the word for a race ridden in stages, often one a day, across streets and open roads. Each rider's times are added up to find an overall winner. Keep it apart from the championship circuit. A cycling tour is a single race, however many days it lasts, while a tour in that other sense is a whole season of separate events.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Cycling tours comprise consecutive stages over multiple days. en.wikipedia.org
- Stages commonly constitute individual days of racing within the event. cyclingbc.net
- These are road cycling events. en.wikipedia.org
- Riders' cumulative stage times determine the overall winner, with any time bonuses or penalties included. cyclingbc.net
- A stage-race tour is one event comprising multiple stages. cyclingbc.net
- A season-long tour circuit comprises separate events, as illustrated by the UCI WorldTour. uci.org
- 5A period of military service spent at a particular post or in a particular assignment.
The soldier completed three tours overseas before retiring.
His tour of duty ended just before the holidays.
UsageOften tour of duty; you serve or complete a tour, and can serve two tours.
Similardeployment, stint, posting
Note
Military English shortens the full phrase tour of duty to the single word, and in that short form it is easy to count: a veteran served two tours in Iraq, and a soldier completed three overseas. Each tour is a fixed stint at a posting or in an operational role, usually followed by rotation or reassignment.
- 6A series of professional competitions held through a season that together form a championship circuit, as in golf, tennis, or snooker.
The golfer qualified for the main tour after a strong season.
Ranking points on the tour decide who reaches the finals.
UsagePlayers are on tour or on the tour; other patterns include qualify for the tour and the pro tour.
Similarcircuit
Note
Here the word names a season-long structure rather than a trip. Professional golf and tennis organize their events this way, and results across events contribute to players' standings.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Professional golf organizes tournaments into tours. en.wikipedia.org
- Professional tennis organizes tournaments into seasonal circuits. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 7A going around; a circuit or circular route.
Note
Milton's eagle in Paradise Lost (1667) "stoopt from his aerie tour": it dived from its high course in the air. Some read this as a wheeling circuit, while editors often gloss it as tower, a bird's soaring height. Either way, no sightseeing is meant. In older writing, tour can also simply mean a circuit or round.
- 8A turn or single revolution; one complete rotation.
It [blood] onward springs, and makes the wondrous tour
1712, Richard Blackmore, Creationthe tours of the heavenly bodies
Note
Of all the senses, this one stays closest to the French verb for turning: a single rotation or revolution. It was used of the heavenly bodies, and in Richard Blackmore's Creation (1712) of the blood that "makes the wondrous tour" through the body. It overlaps with the obsolete 'circuit' sense in its motion: a revolution can also travel around something else.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- The turning sense is etymologically related to the French verb tourner. en.wiktionary.org
- Tour has an obsolete sense meaning a turn or revolution. en.wiktionary.org
- Tour was used of heavenly bodies. en.wiktionary.org
- Richard Blackmore wrote Creation, first published in 1712. openlibrary.org
- Creation describes blood as making the wondrous tour. en.wiktionary.org
- Tour has an obsolete circuit sense. en.wiktionary.org
- A revolution can also be an orbit around another body; the proposed distinction does not hold. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A tall, narrow structure rising above its surroundings; a tower.
Similartower
Note
This is a separate word that happens to share the spelling. It comes from Old French tor, the ancestor of French tour, "tower," and has nothing to do with turning or travel. A reader who meets tour beside castles or stone should picture a building, not a visit.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Tour meaning tower has a separate etymology from tour associated with turning and travel. en.wiktionary.org
- English tour meaning tower comes from Old French tor. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French tor is the ancestor of French tour meaning tower. en.wiktionary.org
- The tower word has a different origin from the turning and travel word. en.wiktionary.org
- 10To toot or sound a horn.
Note
Another unrelated verb, this one linked to toot: to tour a horn was simply to sound it. It is obsolete, and its forms are spelled exactly like those of the travel verb, so a herald who toured his horn did not take it anywhere.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The horn-sounding verb has a separate etymology from the travel verb and is linked to toot. en.wiktionary.org
- The obsolete verb meant to sound a horn; the herald example illustrates that meaning. en.wiktionary.org
- The horn and travel verbs share the forms tour, tours, touring and toured. en.wiktionary.org
- 11In graph theory, a walk that begins and ends at the same vertex without repeating any edge.
Showing meanings only.
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Origins
Old French gave English this word. In Old French, tour or tourn was a noun made from torner, a verb that was also spelled tourner.
From Old French tor and French tour, meaning "tower."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Tour in its dated sense of 'tower' derives from Old French tor and French tour. en.wiktionary.org
- The French source words mean 'tower'. en.wiktionary.org