expat

[eks-peyt]

noun

Informal.

1. an expatriate.

   a favorite hangout for expats.

expat

/ ˌɛksˈpæt /

noun

1. informal,  short for expatriate

Word History and Origins

Origin of expat¹

First recorded in 1960–65; by shortening

Example Sentences

Larysa Shchyrakova is now adjusting to her new life in Lithuania and everything she has, whether food or clothes, has been funded by the expat Belarusian community.

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The final ballots to be counted came from some 87,000 Dutch expats, whose postal votes were tallied in The Hague.

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I am an expat living in Berlin, and my family has always preferred camping to hotels.

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Meanwhile, costs abroad are often so low that expats choose to pay out of pocket for their healthcare needs.

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Jake’s friendship with his fellow expat, the novelist Robert Cohn, is strained.

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Related Words

• displaced person 
• expatriate 

When To Use

What does expat mean?

Expat is short for expatriate—a person who has moved from their native country to another country permanently or for an extended period of time.The word expatriate can refer to a person who has been forced to live in another country (such as due to having been exiled or banished), but it most commonly refers to someone who has chosen to relocate to work in the new country or to retire there. Expats may or may not become citizens of the countries they move to, and they may or may not retain their original citizenship.If the word expat sounds like it has just about the same meaning as the word immigrant, that’s because it does. But expat is used much more narrowly. It can imply (or is at least associated with) a certain amount of wealth and privilege—things not implied by or associated with the word immigrant. The word expat is especially applied to Westerners and used by them to refer to themselves.The word expat is commonly preceded by the person’s original nationality, as in an American expat in Paris. The word expatriate can also be used as a verb and an adjective, but expat is typically used as a noun (though it functions as an adjective in common phrases like expat community).Example: The city has such a large community of British expats that there are multiple pubs that serve as popular social spots for them.