English Dictionary

Define dictionary terms easily in our powerful online English dictionary.

Searching for...

No matching words found

Try a different search term or browse the dictionary

Definition arrive in British English

arrive verb

[intransitive] verb
/əˈraɪv/

The verb arrive is never used with the preposition to:

✗ He meets them at an inn before they arrive to the house.

✓ He meets them at an inn before they arrive at the house.

Arrive can be used with at or in:

▪ you arrive at a building (such as an airport or restaurant)

…the scene in which Robyn arrives at the factory for the first time

▪ you arrive in a geographical location (such as a city or country)

A delegation of senior French ministers will arrive in London today.

▪ you can also use arrive at in a figurative way, meaning ‘to reach a particular goal or point in a process’

Quite independently, we all arrived at the same conclusion.

The court will arrive at a final decision next week.

Note that with the word home, no preposition is used:

✗ When they finally arrive at home, all they want to do is sleep.

✓ When they finally arrive home, all they want to do is sleep.

1

to reach a place, after having been somewhere else

Example

What time does your plane arrive?

Example

I finally arrived home at five in the morning.

Example

Four police officers suddenly arrived at their house.

Synonyms and related words
1.1

to reach a place after having been sent or ordered from somewhere else

Example

A letter arrived for you this morning.

Synonyms and related words
1.2

if information arrives, it is published or heard somewhere

Example

Reports are just arriving about the earthquake in Mexico.

Synonyms and related words
1.3

to come to a place in order to live there permanently

Example

Her parents arrived in America in 1926.

1.4

to join an organization or start a new job

Example

She was just 21 when she arrived at the Daily Mail as a trainee reporter.

Synonyms and related words
2

to happen, take place, or begin to exist

Synonyms and related words
3

if a baby arrives, it is born

Example

Sally was four when her baby brother arrived.

Synonyms and related words
4

to achieve an aim, especially after a lot of effort

Example

Running their own business, they felt they had finally arrived.

Synonyms and related words
Definition arrive in British English