sojourn
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- sojourner noun
Etymology
Origin of sojourn
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English verb sojurnen, Old French sojorner “to rest, stay,” from unattested Vulgar Latin subdiurnāre “to stay for a time,” a compound of the preposition and prefix sub, sub-, here meaning “a little, for a while” and the Latin verb diurnāre “to live for a long time,” a derivative of the Latin adjective diurnus “belonging to the daytime, occurring every day”; noun derivative of the verb; journey
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two of the astronauts will get into Starship HLS and descend to the moon’s surface for a roughly one-week sojourn.
From Slate • Dec. 9, 2025
Or to honesty, as a rule, though he insists that this account of his disastrous Venetian sojourn is genuine.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025
His sojourn in Europe encouraged him to take a fresh approach to the United States: "I began to look at my country from another point of view," he later said.
From BBC • Sep. 16, 2025
Their Polish guide during this sojourn relates that they seemed “like space aliens” walking the streets, the first tangible proof to Poles that punk rock was real.
From Salon • Jul. 22, 2025
I had to shake my head, remembering how we all brought him food—sandwiches and cookies and stuff, but his sojourn didn’t last much beyond dinnertime.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
