Emigration

How to spell emigration

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce emigration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does emigration mean?

1. nounThe act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another.

Emigration in a sentence

• The famine drove mass emigration from the rural provinces.

• Government records track emigration as citizens depart for work overseas.

Where does emigration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb emigrare, meaning 'to move away' or 'to depart from a place'. It was formed from the prefix e-, a reduced form of ex- meaning 'out of', joined to migrare, the verb 'to move from one place to another' or 'to wander'. The Romans used emigrare quite literally for people leaving one settlement to live in another, and the related noun emigratio described that departure. English took the word in during the 1600s, often through scholarly Latin and partly under the influence of French, to name the act of leaving one's own country to settle abroad. Its close cousin 'immigration' comes from the opposite-facing Latin verb immigrare, 'to move into', which is why the single letter difference (e- for going out, im- for coming in) is the heart of the spelling trap.

How the word is built

• e- (out of)
• migr (to move, wander)
• -ation (noun of action)