Refugee

How to spell refugee

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce refugee

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does refugee mean?

1. nounA person who has been forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution, or disaster.

Refugee in a sentence

• The charity provides housing for every refugee arriving at the border.

• As a child refugee, she crossed three countries before reaching safety.

Where does refugee come from?

Language of origin: French

This word goes back to the Latin verb refugere, which meant 'to flee back' or 'to run away for safety', built from the prefix re- ('back') and fugere ('to flee'). From that came the noun refugium, a place of shelter where one could escape danger, the same root that gives us the English word 'refuge'. The specific term 'refugee' entered English at the end of the 1600s from the French réfugié, the past participle of se réfugier ('to take refuge'). It was first applied to the French Protestants, the Huguenots, who fled to England and elsewhere after Louis XIV revoked their religious protections in 1685. The French ending -é became the English -ee that we see in words like 'employee' and 'trainee', which is why the spelling closes with the double e rather than a simple -y.

How the word is built

• refug- (from Latin refugium: a place to flee back to)
• -ee (one who receives an action)