advent

[ ad-vent ]
See synonyms for advent on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.

  2. Usually Advent . the coming of Christ into the world.

  1. Advent, the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.

  2. Usually Advent . Second Coming.

Origin of advent

1
First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English, from Latin adventus “arrival, approach,” equivalent to ad- “toward” + ven- (stem of venīre “to come”) + -tus suffix of verbal action; see ad-

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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use advent in a sentence

  • But his eyes and ears were alert, and he was the first to hear the advent of a large body of horses along the main road.

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • These gorgeous tea-cups were never used but on high-days and holidays, or on the advent of any particular visitors.

    The World Before Them | Susanna Moodie
  • It was not indispensable to the human race during the thousands (I say millions) of years before its advent.

    God and my Neighbour | Robert Blatchford
  • One would think, to read the Christian apologists, that before the advent of Christianity the world had neither virtue nor wisdom.

    God and my Neighbour | Robert Blatchford
  • The social position of the Chinese permitted to remain in the Islands has changed since the American advent.

    The Philippine Islands | John Foreman

British Dictionary definitions for advent (1 of 2)

advent

/ (ˈædvɛnt, -vənt) /


noun
  1. an arrival or coming, esp one which is awaited

Origin of advent

1
C12: from Latin adventus, from advenīre, from ad- to + venīre to come

British Dictionary definitions for Advent (2 of 2)

Advent

/ (ˈædvɛnt, -vənt) /


noun
  1. Christianity the season including the four Sundays preceding Christmas or (in Eastern Orthodox churches) the forty days preceding Christmas

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Advent

Advent

The coming of Jesus, either in the Incarnation of biblical times or in the Second Coming at the end of the world. Also, a time observed in many Christian churches in December to prepare for Christmas.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.