visitation

/ˈvɪzəˌteɪʃən/

/vɪzɪˈteɪʃən/

Other forms: visitations

Use the noun visitation to describe a formal or official visit, like the city health inspector's yearly visitation to your favorite pizza place.

A visitation often includes some kind of evaluation or inspection, or has some other formal aspect. Meeting with a prisoner might be described as a visitation, and the official scheduled time that divorced parents have with their children are also a kind of visitation. Another meaning of the word is "calamity," or "disaster," especially one of Biblical, plague-like proportions: "The town faced a visitation of unbearably hot temperatures for three weeks."

Definitions of visitation

1. noun

   the act of going to see some person or place or thing for a short time
   synonyms: visit

   types:

   site visit

   a visit in an official capacity to examine a site to determine its suitability for some enterprise

   call

   a brief social visit

   visiting

   the activity of making visits

   type of:

   coming together, meeting

   the social act of assembling for some common purpose
2. noun

   an official visit for inspection or supervision
   “the commissioner made visitations to all the precinct stations”

   “the recent visitation of the bishop to his diocese”

   type of:

   visit

   the act of going to see some person or place or thing for a short time
3. noun

   the right of a parent to spend time with a child in the custody of another parent or guardian
   type of:

   legal right

   a right based in law
4. noun

   any disaster or catastrophe
   “a visitation of the plague”

   type of:

   calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy

   an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
5. noun

   an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event
   “a visitation of the plague”

   synonyms: trial, tribulation

   types:

   fire

   a severe trial

   type of:

   affliction

   a cause of great suffering and distress
6. noun

   the appearance of a ghostlike figure
   synonyms: apparition

   type of:

   appearance

   the event of coming into sight