# visitor

Pronunciation: US say "VIZ-i-tur" /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/; UK say "VIZ-i-tuh" /ˈvɪzɪtə/

## Noun

1. A person who comes to see someone else, or who stays with them as a guest.
   - Simple: A person who comes to see someone, or who stays with them as a guest.
   - _Our visitor arrived just as dinner was being served._
   - _She welcomed the visitors into her home and offered them tea._
2. A person who comes to a particular place or event, especially a tourist or sightseer.
   - Simple: A person who travels to a place or event to see it or enjoy it.
   - _A first-time visitor to the city should start at the old harbor._
   - _Park rangers remind visitors to stay on the marked trails._
3. A player or team that is playing away from home, against the host side.
   - Simple: The player or team playing away from their own home ground.
   - _The visitors held on for a narrow win at a hostile stadium._
   - _As the visitor, the club had to travel three hundred miles for the match._
4. A being from another planet that is present on Earth.
   - Simple: A being from another planet that has come to Earth.
   - _Witnesses claimed a visitor had stepped out of the craft and studied them in silence._
   - _Ufologists catalog reported encounters with visitors from other worlds._
5. A natural object from space that passes by Earth or its orbit, or lands on the planet.
   - Simple: A natural object from space that flies past Earth or comes down to it.
   - _The comet was a rare visitor, returning only once every few thousand years._
   - _Many such visitors burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground._
6. An official with the authority to inspect an institution and make sure it is being run as it should be.
   - Simple: A person who has the right to check that a place is being run properly.
   - _The appointed visitor reviewed the charity's records during the annual inspection._
   - _Statutory visitors have authority to enter and examine the institution at any time._
7. In Britain, an official head or overseer of an institution such as a college, cathedral, or hospital, who resolves disputes and performs ceremonial duties. *(British)*
   - Simple: In Britain, the official head of a college or church who settles arguments and gives speeches.
   - _When the fellows could not agree, the visitor was called upon to rule on the matter._
   - _As visitor to the cathedral, the bishop gave the address at the founding anniversary._
8. In software design, the object in the visitor pattern that performs an operation on each element of a structure in turn.
   - Simple: In computer programming, an object that does a job on each item in a group, one at a time.
   - _The visitor traverses every node in the syntax tree and computes its value._
   - _Adding a feature meant writing a fresh visitor rather than editing the element classes._

## Origin

The word comes partly from Middle English 'visiter', formed from 'visit' plus the ending '-er', and partly from Middle English 'visitour', borrowed from Anglo-Norman 'visitour', which in turn came from Old French 'visetëor'. By surface analysis it can be read as 'visit' plus '-or'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/visitor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).