Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important: the advent of the computer.
- n. The liturgical period preceding Christmas, beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence.
- n. Christianity The coming of Jesus at the Incarnation.
- n. Christianity See Second Coming.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A coming into place, view, or being; visitation; arrival; accession: as, the advent of visitors, of an infant, or of death.
- n. Specifically The coming of Christ as the Saviour of the world. Hence [capitalized] Eccles., the period immediately preceding the festival of the Nativity. It includes four Sundays, reckoning from the Sunday nearest St. Andrew's day (Nov. 30) to Christmas eve, and has been observed since the sixth century as a season of devotion with reference to the coming of Christ in the flesh and to his second coming to judge the world; in the Roman Catholic Church observed also as a time of penance and fasting. In the Oriental and Greek Churches the period includes six Sundays, or forty days.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Eccl.) The period including the four Sundays before Christmas.
- n. The first or the expected second coming of Christ.
- n. Coming; any important arrival; approach.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the season including the four Sundays preceding Christmas
- n. arrival that has been awaited (especially of something momentous)
- n. (Christian theology) the reappearance of Jesus as judge for the Last Judgment
Etymologies
- From Latin adventus ("coming to"), perfect passive participle form of verb advenire ("come to"), from prefix ad- ("to"), + verb venire ("come"). Cognate to French avenir ("future"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, the Advent season, from Old French, from Latin adventus, arrival, from past participle of advenīre, to come to : ad-, ad- + venīre, to come. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“(The word "advent" comes from the Latin word that means”
“Even in advent, we usually try and find time during the evening to light candles and sing a song or two.”
“To await its advent is to adopt a policy of indefinite drift, and possibly lose an opportunity that may never be so favourable again.”
“No; social intercourse may be long in coming, but its advent is sure; the mischief is already done.”
“Zerubbabel's kingdom was not independent and settled; also all the prophets end their prophecies with Messiah, whose advent is the cure of all previous disorders.”
“As Jehovah's advent is glorious to His people, so it is terrible to His foes. burning coals -- Ps 18: 8 favors English Version.”
“Hence His human nature could not [4151] be understood, prior to the consummation of those things which had been predicted, that is, the advent of Christ.”
ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus
“Until, that is, the advent of Minimalism, an ethos so certain of its rightness, both aesthetic and historic, that it stands in the causeway of late 20th-century art as the most intractable of obstacles.”
“When the first list had displayed Young Marius's name second from the top, Julia and Mucia Tertia had come to see Aurelia; as these visits were usually the other way around, their advent was a surprise.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘advent’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 319 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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RELI - words you immediately associat...
advent, almighty, altar, anoint, apostle, archangel, ark, Balaam, baptism, baptist, baptize, begotten and 341 more...
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WOOZ
Words contained in the screenplay of Wizard of Oz, 1939 film.
Comments show the actual "line" from the film.
The words are tagged for grade-levelpusillanimous, genuflect, cataclysmic, vernacular, peasantry, aver, caliginous, tedious, advent, careworn, bovine, commodity and 34 more...
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Wuthering Heights
Obscure classic English words in Wuthering Heights you barely understand till you check the dictionary out.
conjecture, tenant, sinewy, peevish, pious, advent, tumult, parlour, villanous, stalwart, soliloquise, gaiters and 6 more...
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Words of Anathem
Orth, Fluccish, and English words that play a role in Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
praxis, avout, anathem, extramuros, intramuros, saunt, concent, bulshytt, requiem, to go hundred, arbre, mathic and 84 more...
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5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
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remnants of a catholic childhood
extreme unction, viaticum, maundy thursday, spy wednesday, good friday, papabile, monstrance, septuagesima, monsignor, thurible, chasuble, alb and 110 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for advent.
dbekeny WIZARD
Times being what they were, I accepted the
job, -- retaining my balloon against the
advent of a quick get-away.
(laughs)
And in that balloon, my dear Dorothy, you
and I will return to the land of E Pluribus
Unum!
Jun 6, 2010
jeen0809 The arrival of the television surprised many people. Mar 30, 2007