Exodus

How to spell exodus

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exodus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exodus mean?

1. nounA mass departure of a large number of people from a place.

Exodus in a sentence

• The factory closure triggered an exodus of workers from the town.

• Rising rents have caused a steady exodus of families to the suburbs.

Where does exodus come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek exodos, which literally meant 'a way out' or 'a going out', built from ex- meaning 'out' and hodos meaning 'way, road, or journey'. It passed into Latin as exodus and became famous as the title of the second book of the Bible, which describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. English adopted the word in the late Old English period through that scriptural context, and from there it broadened into the general modern sense of any large-scale departure of people. The buried hodos root, meaning a path or journey, also survives in the word 'method', which originally meant a pursuit or following along a way. Because the second syllable swallows its vowel into a faint schwa, writers can be unsure whether to spell it exodus, exidus, or exadus, so it helps to remember the journey root od sitting at its centre.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• -od- (from Greek hodos: way, road, journey)
• -us (Latin noun ending)