asylum
Americannoun
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asylums,
plural
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asyla
plural
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(especially formerly) an institution for the maintenance and care of the mentally ill, orphans, or other persons requiring specialized assistance.
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an inviolable refuge, as formerly for criminals and debtors; sanctuary.
He sought asylum in the church.
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International Law.
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a refuge granted an alien by a sovereign state on its own territory.
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a temporary refuge granted political offenders, especially in a foreign embassy.
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any secure retreat.
noun
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a safe or inviolable place of refuge, esp as formerly offered by the Christian Church to criminals, outlaws, etc; sanctuary (often in the phrase give asylum to )
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shelter; refuge
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international law refuge afforded to a person whose extradition is sought by a foreign government
political asylum
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obsolete an institution for the shelter, treatment, or confinement of individuals, esp a mental hospital (formerly termed lunatic asylum )
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of asylum
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin, from Greek ásȳlon “sanctuary,” from a- a- 6 + sŷlon “right of seizure”
Explanation
When someone needs a refuge from a difficult or dangerous situation, they need asylum. If a government offers to protect people who have fled war or hardship in their own country, it gives them asylum. You may have heard asylum used to describe an institution where insane people are housed, but did you know that an asylum can also be somewhere you’d happily and willingly go? An asylum offers shelter and protection, like the awning of a building in a downpour. Or it could be a country that takes in refugees in danger of persecution — otherwise known as "political asylum."
Vocabulary lists containing asylum
100 Top "SAT" Words
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The Westing Game
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
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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.
See Examples For:
The violence comes amid growing anger over a court ruling requiring the government to remove barriers that had prevented some migrants from applying for asylum.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
The ruling led hundreds of people to flock to government refugee centres in recent days, reportedly including people who do not qualify for asylum.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
The Rohingya make up two-thirds of the roughly 190,000 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, according to United Nations data.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Italian border police stopped him, and Lee asserted asylum, claiming that prosecutors were seeking his death.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Singer spent all of his summer vacation in the town where Antonapoulos was being kept in the asylum.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Greece had its famous asyla, but the custom of our own country was probably influenced from Hebrew rather than classical sources.
From Legal Lore Curiosities of Law and Lawyers by Various
We no longer write of ideæ, chori, asyla, musea, sphinges, specimina for ideas, choruses, asylums, museums, sphinxes, specimens, and the notion of returning to such plurals would seem barbarous and absurd.
From Society for Pure English, Tract 03 (1920) A Few Practical Suggestions by Society for Pure English
Or were they swimming with the normative current in order to maintain careers, families, social standing — or, for that matter, to avoid being sent to asylums for shock treatment?
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
Orson and Lorenzo, consummate showmen, were summoned to prisons, where they inspected the heads of inmates and guessed their crimes; at lunatic asylums they were challenged to identify the patients’ disorders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
In the 1960s, public opinion turned against involuntary commitments and the abuses of “snakepit” asylums.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2024
The Magdalene Laundries were back in the spotlight recently following the death of Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who spent time in one of the former asylums as a teenager.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2023
Others suffered nightmares and panic attacks for the rest of their lives, and some shell-shock victims were confined to insane asylums.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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.
