Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Received with pleasure and hospitality into one's company or home.
  • adjective Giving pleasure or satisfaction; agreeable or gratifying.
  • adjective Cordially or willingly permitted or invited.
  • adjective Used in the expression you're welcome to acknowledge an expression of gratitude.
  • noun A cordial greeting or hospitable reception given to an arriving person.
  • noun A reception upon arrival.
  • noun The state of being welcome.
  • transitive verb To greet, receive, or entertain (another or others) cordially or hospitably.
  • transitive verb To receive or accept gladly.
  • interjection Used to greet cordially a visitor or recent arrival.
  • idiom (wear out (one's) welcome) To visit so often or stay so long as to become a nuisance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of bidding or making welcome; a kindly greeting to one coming.
  • noun Kind or hospitable reception of a guest or new-comer.
  • Gladly received for intercourse or entertainment; esteemed as one whose coming or presence is agreeable; held as doing well to come: as, a welcome guest or visitor; you are always welcome here; to make a visitor feel welcome.
  • Conferring gladness on receipt or presentation; such that its perception or acquisition gives pleasure; gladly received into knowledge or possession: as, welcome news; a welcome relief.
  • Gladly or willingly permitted, privileged, or the like; free to have, enjoy, etc.: as, you are welcome to do as you please; he is welcome to the money, or to all his honors.
  • Synonyms and
  • Acceptable, agreeable, gratifying, pleasant.
  • To greet the coming of with pleasure; salute with a welcome; receive gladly or joyfully: as, to welcome a friend, or the break of day.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Received with gladness; admitted willingly to the house, entertainment, or company.
  • adjective Producing gladness; grateful.
  • adjective Free to have or enjoy gratuitously.
  • adjective (Bot.) a kind of spurge (Euphorbia Cyparissias).
  • transitive verb To salute with kindness, as a newcomer; to receive and entertain hospitably and cheerfully.
  • noun Salutation to a newcomer.
  • noun Kind reception of a guest or newcomer.
  • noun to receive with professions of kindness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection Greeting given upon someone’s arrival.
  • verb to affirm or greet the arrival of someone, especially by saying "Welcome!".
  • verb to accept something willingly or gladly.
  • adjective Whose arrival is a cause of joy.
  • noun The act of greeting someone’s arrival, especially by saying "Welcome!"; reception.
  • noun The utterance of such a greeting.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the state of being welcome
  • noun a greeting or reception
  • verb bid welcome to; greet upon arrival
  • adjective giving pleasure or satisfaction or received with pleasure or freely granted
  • verb accept gladly
  • verb receive someone, as into one's house

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, alteration (influenced by wel, well) of Old English wilcuma, welcome guest, welcome; see gwā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English welcome, wolcume, wulcume, wilcume, from Old English wilcuma ("one whose coming is pleasant, a welcome person or thing, a guest"; compare also wilcume ("welcome!", interjection)), from Proto-Germanic *weljakwumô (“a comer, a welcomed guest”), equivalent to will (“desire”) +‎ come (“comer, arrival”). Cognate with Scots walcome ("welcome"), West Frisian wolkom ("welcome"), Dutch welkom ("welcome"), German willkommen ("welcome"), Danish and Norwegian velkommen ("welcome"), Swedish välkommen ("welcome"), Icelandic velkomin ("welcome").

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Examples

  • The Supreme One requests that you go to the gate and in his name welcome his guests and conduct them into the city.

    Burning Tower Larry Niven 2005

  • The Supreme One requests that you go to the gate and in his name welcome his guests and conduct them into the city.

    Burning Tower Larry Niven 2005

  • He practiced writing on the glossy board with erasable markers, forming loops and squiggled lines and words, and then wiping away everything but the word welcome, which he underlined in red and blue.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

  • He practiced writing on the glossy board with erasable markers, forming loops and squiggled lines and words, and then wiping away everything but the word welcome, which he underlined in red and blue.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

  • He practiced writing on the glossy board with erasable markers, forming loops and squiggled lines and words, and then wiping away everything but the word welcome, which he underlined in red and blue.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

  • He practiced writing on the glossy board with erasable markers, forming loops and squiggled lines and words, and then wiping away everything but the word welcome, which he underlined in red and blue.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

  • He practiced writing on the glossy board with erasable markers, forming loops and squiggled lines and words, and then wiping away everything but the word welcome, which he underlined in red and blue.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

  • He practiced writing on the glossy board with erasable markers, forming loops and squiggled lines and words, and then wiping away everything but the word welcome, which he underlined in red and blue.

    Heaven Lake John Dalton 2004

  • Your welcome is also evident by the size of our audience today-thanks to the hotel management we were able to move the luncheon from the Ballroom to here in the Concert Hall in order to accommodate everyone.

    Inter-Provincial and Federal-Provincial Relations 1973

  • The word "welcome" is sprawled across five panels in 16 languages, from Russian to Urdu, in the Park Ridge school's rotunda.

    News - chicagotribune.com 2011

Comments

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  • Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness that you bring! - Dracula

    March 15, 2009

  • ¡El Conde vive en el ataúd! ¡Bebe de la sangre!

    (The Count lives in the coffin! He drinks of the blood!)

    March 15, 2009