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• diaspora
  diaspora

  noun

  Usually Diaspora. the scattering of the Jews from the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah following the dissolution of those kingdoms and Babylonian captivity.
• Diaspora
  Diaspora

diaspora

American  

[dahy-as-per-uh, dee-] / daɪˈæs pər ə, di- /

noun

• diasporas
  plural

1. Usually Diaspora. the scattering of the Jews from the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah following the dissolution of those kingdoms and Babylonian captivity.

2. Often Diaspora.

   1. the body of Jews living in countries outside Israel.

   2. such countries collectively.

      Passover is celebrated for seven days in Israel, but for eight days by Jews living in the Diaspora.

3. Often Diaspora. any group that has been dispersed outside its traditional homeland, especially involuntarily, as Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

4. any group migration or flight from a country or region.

   Synonyms:

   scattering, displacement, migration, dissemination, dispersion

   Antonyms:

   return

5. any religious group living as a minority among people of the prevailing religion.

6. the spread or dissemination of something originally confined to a local, homogeneous group, as a language or cultural institution.

   the diaspora of English as a global language.

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Diaspora British  

/ daɪˈæspərə /

noun

1. 1. the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian and Roman conquests of Palestine

   2. the Jewish communities outside Israel

   3. the Jews living outside Israel

   4. the extent of Jewish settlement outside Israel

2. (in the New Testament) the body of Christians living outside Palestine

3. (often not capital) a dispersion or spreading, as of people originally belonging to one nation or having a common culture

4. the descendants of Sub-Saharan African peoples living anywhere in the Western hemisphere

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Pop Culture

—“To the Diaspora”: A 1981 poem by African American poet Gwendolyn Brooks. — Diaspora: A 1997 science fiction novel by Australian author Greg Egan.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• diasporic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• diasporas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of diaspora

First recorded in 1690–1700; from Greek diasporá “scattering, dispersion”; see origin at dia-, spore

Explanation

A diaspora is a large group of people with a similar heritage or homeland who have since moved out to places all over the world. The term diaspora comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "to scatter about." And that's exactly what the people of a diaspora do — they scatter from their homeland to places across the globe, spreading their culture as they go. The Bible refers to the Diaspora of Jews exiled from Israel by the Babylonians. But the word is now also used more generally to describe any large migration of refugees, language, or culture.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

diaspora Diaspora diasporas

What distinguishes Tsion Cafe is that its food represents the Jewish diaspora from Ethiopia, a group that numbers over 175,000 in Israel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Tibetans were targeted alongside Catholic leaders across Asia, Taiwanese Christians, Falun Gong practitioners and other religious and diaspora communities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

She lives in Montreal which has a large Moroccan diaspora of about 104,000 people, according to the 2016 census.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

While studying history in Switzerland, home to a large Albanian diaspora, he became frustrated with the policy of peaceful resistance espoused by the late Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova.

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

I could not bring you, but I have no problem telling you what I saw—the entire diaspora around me—hustlers, lawyers, Kappas, busters, doctors, barbers, Deltas, drunkards, geeks, and nerds.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

But in an “ideas forum” at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in July he sketched out some basics for what he calls “Cuba Day Zero: Stabilization, Reconstruction and the Path to Investment.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

One popular order is the Diaspora Delight with blackened salmon and jollof rice.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Of the 600,000 or so Iranians living in the U.S., about half are in California, according to the Iranian Diaspora Dashboard produced by UCLA’s Center of Near Eastern Studies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2026

The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said the decision followed "MSF's failure to submit lists of local employees, a requirement applicable to all humanitarian organisations operating in the region".

From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026

They spent many hours talking together about the changing world and the dawning of independence and liberation movements across the African Diaspora.

From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore

Excitement for the global soccer spectacle has progressively waned as countries with large diasporas in the city -- like Mexico and Egypt -- have been ejected.

From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026

The move hits at the heart of Minnesota’s Somali-American community, one of the largest Somali diasporas in the country.

From Salon ● Nov. 22, 2025

She’s made waves with No Nazar, a DJ collective she co-founded that hosts parties across the country that highlight the music of the Caribbean and African diasporas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2024

The tactics employed by governments to police their diasporas abroad are known as transnational repression.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2023

Money brokers are part of large Chinese diasporas in places like Europe, the United States and Latin America.

From Reuters ● Apr. 6, 2023

Related Words

• exodus