visitor

Everyday

1. A visitor is a person who comes to see a person or a place for a while. tree →
2. A visitor to a website is a person who looks at it. tree →

In the lessons

In school and safety, visitors must sign in at the school office and wear a badge, so staff know who is in the building. In everyday life you get visitors at home (grandparents, friends) and you are polite: say hello, offer a drink. Tourists are visitors to a city or country. In maths problems you often count visitors: «A museum had 120 visitors on Monday and 95 on Tuesday.» In science, a bird that comes only in summer is a summer visitor.

Examples

• We have visitors coming for dinner tonight. tree →
• All visitors must report to the school office. tree →
• The zoo had 3,000 visitors on Saturday. tree →
• Swallows are summer visitors to Britain. tree →
• A visitor knocked at the door. tree →
• The museum gives every visitor a map. tree →
• Our class website had 50 visitors this week. tree →
• Then at last the visitor spoke, in a lovely bell-like voice. tree →

Note

Countable: a visitor, visitors. Spelt -or, not -er. «Visit» is the action, «visitor» the person. A «guest» is usually invited; a visitor might not be. Children should not let unknown visitors into the house without an adult. In maths, «visitors in all» means add the numbers.