emigrate
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
Usage
What does emigrate mean? Emigrate means to permanently leave home in one country or region to settle in another. The act or occurrence of emigrating is called emigration. A person who is emigrating or has emigrated can be called an emigrant. What’s the difference between emigrate, immigrate, and migrate?To migrate is to move from one place to another (and perhaps back and forth). To emigrate is to move out, and to immigrate is to move in. For this reason, the word emigrate is commonly followed by from and the home country, whereas immigrate is commonly followed by to and the destination country. Of course, emigrate and immigrate are two ways to describe the same process—people who are emigrating are also immigrating (if they leave, they have to go somewhere). But there are good reasons to use each word in different situations. For example, one country may be a common destination for people to immigrate to, while another may be a place that people are frequently emigrating from. The words migrate and immigrate are more likely to be used to describe such relocation in a general way (that is, a way that takes both the starting point and the destination into account), whereas emigrate is almost always about the starting point. Example: The lack of employment has caused a significant number of people to emigrate, with many highly skilled workers leaving the country.
Synonym Usage
See migrate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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reemigrateverb (used without object)
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emigrativeadjective
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emigratoryadjective
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unemigratingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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emigratesimple
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emigratessimple
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have emigratedperfect
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has emigratedperfect
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am emigratingprogressive
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are emigratingprogressive
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is emigratingprogressive
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have been emigratingperfect progressive
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has been emigratingperfect progressive
Past
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emigratedsimple
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had emigratedperfect
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was emigratingprogressive
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were emigratingprogressive
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had been emigratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of emigrate
First recorded in 1770–80; from Latin ēmīgrātus “moved away” (past participle of ēmīgrāre ), equivalent to ē- “from, away from, out of” ( see e- 1) + mīgrātus ( mīgr- “remove” + ātus verb suffix ( see -ate 1)
Explanation
If you move to a different country, you emigrate. For example, if you emigrate from Canada and go to Italy, you aren't on vacation — you are making Italy your new home. Benvenuti! The verb emigrate comes from the Latin word emigrare, which means “move away,” or “depart from a place.” The words emigrate and immigrate both mean that a person has decided to permanently live in a foreign country, but to emigrate is to leave your country, and to immigrate is to come into a new country. To emigrate is to exit.
Vocabulary lists containing emigrate
Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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"A Place to Call Home," Vocabulary from the research study
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Geography
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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:
Zemlinsky did manage to emigrate to New York but died of pneumonia in 1942 without having been able to revive his career.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
"If I don't find a job here, I'll have to emigrate again. We have no choice. We can't starve," he added.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
Medics and analysts say Nigeria has a very low doctor-patient ratio, worsened by a massive "brain drain" as health professionals emigrate after being enticed by better working conditions abroad.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
Economic collapse and political repression led roughly 8 million Venezuelans to emigrate since 2014, making it one of the world’s largest displacement crises.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2026
Too old to emigrate, Hannibal Sloat, although not a special, was doomed to creep out his remaining life on Earth.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
The two lose contact for 12 years after Nora’s family emigrates to the United States and reconnect after Hae-sung finds her again on Facebook.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2024
“No one emigrates from their country because they want to. One migrates because you have basic needs and there isn’t support in your native country,” she said, starting to cry.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 6, 2023
Dr Black said contracts are being handed back because there are serious difficulties in finding a replacement when a doctor "retires or emigrates, or resigns".
From BBC ● May 29, 2023
She drew upon these feelings to create “Other Words for Home,” a novel in verse about a girl who emigrates from Syria and tries to find a place for herself in the United States.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2022
Having lost his property through the villainy of Lawyer Endless, he emigrates, and in three years returns.
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
My love for the Fourth comes from my grandfather, who emigrated to this country from Lebanon.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
Her family were originally from Maesteg in Bridgend county, and emigrated to Australia during the 1950s.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
Su, 56, emigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan as a child and holds three electrical engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Raman emigrated from India to the United States as a child.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
Under the “family history” tab, Molly finds a sepia-toned picture of Agneta and Bernard Schatzman, who emigrated from Germany in 1915, resided at 26 Elizabeth Street.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
The menu revolves around the food of Barsoom’s native Egypt, where she lived before emigrating to Canada in 2000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Many Britons have taken the leap by emigrating to Australia for a "better life", but one man has taken the plunge in order to build a better life back home in Wales.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
And he, as a young boy, was part of the avocado trade before emigrating to the United States.
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2026
Those emigrating were "highly qualified individuals" and the public money Cameroon had spent on training them was being lost to their destination countries, he said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2025
The same procedure can be applied to reconstruct Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, the ancestral language spoken by Austronesians after emigrating from Taiwan.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
