1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important: the advent of the computer.
2. Advent
   1. 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.
   2. Christianity. The coming of Jesus at the Incarnation.
   3. Christianity. See Second Coming.

[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.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.