visual

English

Alternative forms

• visuall (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

From Middle English vysual, from Old French, from Late Latin visualis (“of sight”), from Latin visus (“sight”), from videre (“to see”), past participle visus; see visage.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪʒuːəl/, /ˈvɪzjuːəl/, /ˈvɪʒəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪʒuəl/, /ˈvɪʒwəl/

Adjective

visual (comparative more visual, superlative most visual)

1. Related to or affecting the vision.
   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close […] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.

2. (obsolete) That can be seen; visible.

Derived terms

• audiovisual
• nonvisual
• visual acuity
• visual aid
• visual angle
• visual art
• visual artist
• visual arts
• visual axis
• visual binary
• visual cortex
• visual diary
• visual display unit
• visual effects
• visual field
• visualization
• visualize
• visual kei
• visual language
• visually
• visual magnitude
• visual merchandising
• visual novel
• visual poem
• visual poetry
• visual pollution
• visual presenter
• visual programming language
• visual proximity
• visual pun
• visual purple
• visual rhyme
• visual servoing
• visual snow
• visual space
• visual streak
• visual text
• visual voicemail
• visual white
• visual yellow
• VLOS

Related terms

• envisage
• evidence
• visage
• visible
• vision
• visionary

Translations

related to or affecting the vision

• Arabic: بَصَرِيّ (baṣariyy)
• Asturian: visual
• Belarusian: візуа́льны (vizuálʹny)
• Bulgarian: визуален (vizualen), зрителен (zritelen)
• Catalan: visual (ca)
• Czech: zrakový (cs)
• Danish: visuel
• Dutch: visueel (nl)
• Finnish: visuaalinen (fi)
• French: visuel (fr)
• Galician: visual (gl)
• Georgian: ვიზუალური (vizualuri), მხედველობითი (mxedvelobiti), ოპტიკური (oṗṭiḳuri)
• German: visuell (de)
• Greek: οπτικός (el) (optikós)

  Ancient: ὀπτικός (optikós)

• Hungarian: vizuális (hu)
• Ido: vidala (io)
• Indonesian: visual (id)
• Italian: visuale (it)
• Latin: visualis, oculorum
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: visuell

  Nynorsk: visuell

• Polish: wizualny (pl)
• Portuguese: visual (pt)
• Russian: зри́тельный (ru) (zrítelʹnyj), визуа́льный (ru) (vizuálʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: vidni
• Spanish: visual (es)
• Tagalog: tanawin (tl)
• Ukrainian: зорови́й (zorovýj), візуа́льний (vizuálʹnyj)

Noun

visual (plural visuals)

1. Any element of something that depends on sight.
   • 2016, S. C. Sterling, Teenage Degenerate, page 5:

     It wasn't the first time I pulled an all-nighter, but normally I was coming off an acid trip and still seeing visuals dancing around in my head.

2. An image; a picture; a graphic.
3. (in the plural) All the visual elements of a multimedia presentation or entertainment, usually in contrast with normal text or audio.
4. (advertising) A preliminary sketch.
5. (marching band) Any element of a show done by a marching band besides the marching and playing of instruments.

   The visual where the trombone all threw their instruments into the air looked good.

Derived terms

• have a visual on

Further reading

• “visual”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “visual”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Auvils

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin visuālis, from Latin visus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈswal/ [biˈswal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: vi‧sual

Adjective

visual (epicene, plural visuales)

1. visual

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin visuālis, from Latin visus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [bi.zuˈal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [vi.zuˈal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: vi‧su‧al

Adjective

visual m or f (masculine and feminine plural visuals)

1. visual

Derived terms

• audiovisual
• visualitzar
• visualment

Further reading

• “visual” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “visual”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “visual” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “visual” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin visuālis, from Latin visus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈswal/ [biˈs̺wɑɫ]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: vi‧sual

Adjective

visual m or f (plural visuais)

1. visual

Derived terms

• visualmente

Further reading

• “visual”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025
• “visual” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

Indonesian

Etymology

From Late Latin visualis (“of sight”), from Latin visus (“sight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [viˈsual]
• Hyphenation: vi‧su‧al

Adjective

visual

1. visual
   1. related to or affecting the vision.
   2. that can be seen; visible.

Derived terms

• memvisualkan (“to visualise”)
• pemvisualan (“visualisation”)

Further reading

• “visual” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Occitan

Alternative forms

• visuau

Adjective

visual m (feminine singular visuala, masculine plural visuals, feminine plural visualas)

1. visual

Further reading

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 737.

Piedmontese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /viˈzɥal/

Noun

visual f (plural visuaj)

1. view

Adjective

visual

1. visual

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin visuālis, from Latin visus.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /vi.zuˈaw/ [vi.zʊˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /viˈzwaw/ [viˈzwaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /viˈzwal/ [viˈzwaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /viˈzwal/ [viˈzwaɫ]
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /biˈzwal/ [biˈzwaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /viˈzwa.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: vi‧su‧al

Adjective

visual m or f (plural visuais)

1. visual

Derived terms

• audiovisual
• visualizar
• visualmente

Noun

visual m (plural visuais)

1. look, style

   Synonym: look

Further reading

• “visual” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin visuālis, from Latin visus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈswal/ [biˈswal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: vi‧sual

Adjective

visual m or f (masculine and feminine plural visuales)

1. visual

Derived terms

• agudeza visual
• audiovisual
• campo visual
• contacto visual
• novela visual
• poema visual
• visualmente

Further reading

• “visual”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10