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I am looking for a generic word for a person who is being visited. The opposite of visitor according to thesaurus.com is host. That's not what I'm looking for. A couple examples: an employee being visited by a guest; a student being visited by their parent at school. I can't think of anything except "visitee" and I couldn't find it officially used anywhere.

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    ‘The visited’? Depending on your context and level of formality, you could always just go ahead and use ‘visitee’. It might not be in the dictionaries, but it's a perfectly plain, clear, immediately understandable, and unambiguous word. In an informal context, I'd have no qualms whatsoever in using it. Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 1:47
  • It's less common these days, but visitors may also be referred to as callers. In programming, caller has a somewhat different meaning - it's a piece of code that calls (invokes) other code. Often that "other code" is called a subroutine, especially if it's called by several "higher-level" sections of code. But increasingly it's convenient to refer to the two elements in the interaction as caller and callee. Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 5:12
  • What is wrong with using host?
    – Kit Z. Fox
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 13:59
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    Host doesn't work. We are talking of an ad hoc visit, not a response to an invitation. The antonym of 'host' is 'guest'. I thing the best idea so far is that of Janus above - 'the visited'. as for his other suggestion 'visitee', I would only use it with a hint of irony.
    – WS2
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 17:13
  • A person may be visited. But also a place may be visited. Should your word apply in that case?
    – GEdgar
    Commented Dec 30, 2015 at 0:43

1 Answer 1

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From Collins English Dictionary

visitee - noun - a person who is visited

And from WordPlays

visitee - noun - the person to whom a visit is made

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    I've never heard it used!
    – WS2
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 10:48
  • You wouldn't be the only one @WS2. That's the only dictionary i know to have "visitee". But it seems so logical and intuitive that i'd not hesitate to use it on all my visitors and visitees over the coming months!
    – Martin F
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 15:30
  • That's amazing! I've looked all over and been using that word for quite a while now, but gave up because I couldn't find it officially used anywhere. Thanks!
    – Uxonith
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 17:35
  • I think I've decided I will just use visitee. According to Merriam-Webster.com, the best way to get a word into their dictionary is to just use it. Since I have no other word to use, I guess I will just try to promote usage of the word.
    – Uxonith
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 17:39
  • Great. You and I are the Visitees -- lesser known than the Visigoths -- but we always have a hot pot of tea ready!
    – Martin F
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 17:47

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