visa

V4I1S1A1
US, UK/ˈviː.zə/

noun

A permit to enter and leave a country, normally issued by the authorities of the country to be visited.

“I came on a six-month tourist visa.”

OriginFrench visa ← Latin charta vīsa →
CommonScrabble 7
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Meanings

visa1

nounvisa (plural visas)

plural visas

  1. A permit to enter and leave a country, normally issued by the authorities of the country to be visited.

    I came on a six-month tourist visa.

    3 more examples

    Several Sun MySQLers have been denied short stay business visas to Australia - yes, Australia - as they attempted to attend a Linux conference in Hobart, Tasmania. According to a blog post from Kaj Arno, vice president in charge of "database community" at Sun Microsystems, several employees - many of whom worked with MySQL - have been barred from entering Oz.

    2009 January 13, Cade Metz, “Sun MySQLers barred from Oz”, in The Register, archived from the original on 17 Jun 2020

    However, I couldn't continue by land to Georgia, as I would have liked: Russia still maintains its crazy, Sovietesque visa regulations, which makes getting a transit visa extremely difficult and extremely expensive.

    2016, James S. Kessler, Echoes of Empire

    The impact would be smaller in the immediate term given that the Trump proclamation allows existing visa holders to remain in the US, but still, at MSK around 100 new scientific and medical trainees this year would not be allowed to commence their research.

    2020 June 23, Ushma S. Neill, “The hidden health cost of Trump’s visa freeze”, in CNN
verbvisa (third-person singular simple present visas, present participle visaing, simple past and past participle visaed)

present singular third person visas · participle present visaing · participle past visaed · past visaed

  1. datedtransitiveTo endorse (a passport, etc.).

    "Let me tell you that I am going to spit into that coffee! Yes, and if you do not get me my passport visaed this very minute, I shall take it to Monsignor myself.”

    1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth

Visa2

proper noun
  1. bankingA credit card company.

    Got PayPal or Visa, whatever'll please ya As long as I've got the dough.

    2003, "Weird Al" Yankovic, eBay (song)
    1 more example

    Paying with Visa abroad uses the same high-tech, anti-fraud systems as at home, so your payments are safe wherever you are.

    2019 July 5 (last accessed), “Visa Abroad”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
  2. alternativeAlternative spelling of visa.
nounVisa (plural Visas)

plural Visas

  1. bankingA credit card issued by the credit card company Visa.
  2. bankingA credit card.

VISA3

nounVISA (uncountable)
  1. abbreviationinitialismuncountablebiologyInitialism of vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus.

Origin

visa · noun, verb

  1. Latinvidēre“to see”
  2. Latincharta vīsa“paper that has been seen”
  3. Frenchvisa
  4. Englishvisa

From 1831, "official signature or endorsement on a passport," from French visa, from Latin charta vīsa (“paper that has been seen”) from feminine perfect passive of Latin vidēre (“to see”). Compare vision, video, vista.

More words from French, Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Visa · proper noun, noun

Coined by the company's founder, Dee Hock, who believed that the word was instantly recognizable in many languages and that it denoted universal acceptance.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans visum
  • visumpermit to enter a country
Arabic تَأْشِيرَة, فِيزَا
  • تَأْشِيرَة (taʔšīra)permit to enter a country
  • فِيزَا (fīzā)permit to enter a country
Bengali ভিসা
  • ভিসা (bhiśa)permit to enter a country
Bulgarian ви́за
  • ви́за (víza)permit to enter a country
Catalan visat
  • visatpermit to enter a country
Chinese Cantonese 簽證 /签证
  • 簽證 /签证permit to enter a country
Chinese Mandarin 簽證 /签证, 維薩卡 /维萨卡
  • 簽證 /签证 (qiānzhèng)permit to enter a country
  • 維薩卡 /维萨卡 (wéisàkǎ)credit card issued by Visa
Czech vízum
  • vízumpermit to enter a country
Danish visum
  • visumpermit to enter a country
Dutch visum
  • visumpermit to enter a country
Esperanto vizo
  • vizopermit to enter a country
Estonian viisa
  • viisapermit to enter a country
Finnish viisumi
  • viisumipermit to enter a country
French visa
  • visapermit to enter a country
German Visum
  • Visumpermit to enter a country
Greek βίζα, θεώρηση
  • βίζα (víza)permit to enter a country
  • θεώρηση (theórisi)permit to enter a country
Hebrew וִיזָה, אֲשֵׁרָה
  • וִיזָה (víza)permit to enter a country
  • אֲשֵׁרָה ('ashrá)permit to enter a country
Hindi वीज़ा, वीजा
  • वीज़ा (vīzā)permit to enter a country
  • वीजा (vījā)permit to enter a country
  • वीसा (vīsā)permit to enter a country
Hungarian vízum
  • vízumpermit to enter a country
Icelandic vegabréfsáritun
  • vegabréfsáritunpermit to enter a country
Indonesian visa
  • visapermit to enter a country
Irish víosa
  • víosapermit to enter a country
Italian visto
  • vistopermit to enter a country
Japanese ビザ, 査証
  • ビザ (biza)permit to enter a country
  • 査証 (sashō)permit to enter a country
Korean 비자, 사증
  • 비자 (bija)permit to enter a country
  • 사증 (sajeung)permit to enter a country
Latvian vīza
  • vīzapermit to enter a country
Lithuanian viza
  • vizapermit to enter a country
Malay visa
  • visapermit to enter a country
Māori kōkota, pane uruwhenua
  • kōkotapermit to enter a country
  • pane uruwhenuapermit to enter a country
Norwegian Bokmål visum
  • visumpermit to enter a country
Polish wiza
  • wizapermit to enter a country
Portuguese visto
  • vistopermit to enter a country
Romanian viză
  • vizăpermit to enter a country
Russian ви́за
  • ви́за (víza)permit to enter a country
Slovak vízum
  • vízumpermit to enter a country
Spanish visa, visado
  • visapermit to enter a country
  • visadopermit to enter a country
Swahili viza
  • vizapermit to enter a country
Swedish visum
  • visumpermit to enter a country
Tagalog bisa
  • bisapermit to enter a country
Tamil விசா
  • விசா (vicā)permit to enter a country
Thai วีซา
  • วีซา (wii-sâa)permit to enter a country
Turkish vize
  • vizepermit to enter a country
Ukrainian ві́за
  • ві́за (víza)permit to enter a country
Urdu وِیزا
  • وِیزا (vīzā)permit to enter a country
Vietnamese thị thực, giấy xuất cảnh
  • thị thựcpermit to enter a country
  • giấy xuất cảnhpermit to enter a country
  • chiếu khánpermit to enter a country
Welsh teitheb
  • teithebpermit to enter a country
Yiddish וויזע
  • וויזע (vize)permit to enter a country

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with visa

LisapizzateresaIbizaLouisaPisaGizaRisaRizagenizahalbarizaMona Lisa
All rhymes →

Anagrams

avissiva
Cite this entry
APA

visa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/visa

MLA

“visa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/visa. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “visa,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/visa.

Source: visa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.