expatriate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to banish (a person) from their native country.
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to withdraw (oneself ) from residence in one's native country.
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to withdraw (oneself ) from allegiance to one's country.
verb (used without object)
adjective
noun
adjective
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resident in a foreign country
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exiled or banished from one's native country
an expatriate American
noun
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a person who lives in a foreign country
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an exile; expatriate person
verb
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to exile (oneself) from one's native country or cause (another) to go into exile
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to deprive (oneself or another) of citizenship
Usage
What does expatriate mean? An expatriate is 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 people who have been forced to live in another country (such as due to having been exiled or banished), but it most commonly refers to people who have chosen to relocate to work in the new country or to retire there. Expatriates 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 expatriate sounds like it has just about the same meaning as the word immigrant, that’s because it does. But expatriate 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 expatriate is especially applied to Westerners and used by them to refer to themselves. A common and informal short form is expat. The act or process of becoming an expatriate is called expatriation. The word expatriate is commonly preceded by the person’s original nationality, as in an American expatriate in Paris. Expatriate can also be used as a verb meaning to withdraw one’s residence in or allegiance to their native country, or to banish a citizen. When expatriate is used as a verb, the last syllable is pronounced like ate [ eyt ]. Expatriate can also be used as an adjective describing a person who has become an expatriate or a person who has been exiled. Example: The city has such a large community of British expatriates that there are multiple pubs that serve as popular social spots for them.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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expatriatesimple
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expatriatessimple
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have expatriatedperfect
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has expatriatedperfect
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am expatriatingprogressive
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are expatriatingprogressive
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is expatriatingprogressive
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have been expatriatingperfect progressive
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has been expatriatingperfect progressive
Past
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expatriatedsimple
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had expatriatedperfect
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was expatriatingprogressive
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were expatriatingprogressive
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had been expatriatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of expatriate
First recorded in 1760–70; from Medieval Latin expatriātus (past participle of expatriāre “to banish”), equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + patri(a) “native land” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
An expatriate is someone who lives in another country by choice. If you leave your split-level ranch in Ohio and move to a writers' commune in Paris for good, you've become an expatriate. Expatriate can also be a verb, so that American in Paris has expatriated. There was a scene of expatriates, or expats, living in Paris in the roaring '20s that included writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. The word used to mean to get kicked out of your native country — it's from the French word expatrier which means "banish." The prefix ex means "out of" and the Latin patria "one's native country," but the word took a turn and now refers to people who left without getting shoved out.
Vocabulary lists containing expatriate
Not Your Father's Word List: Pater, Patr
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Born a Crime
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"What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" Vocabulary from the short story
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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 closest it has come to playing an international match was when representative teams faced a Solomon Islands expatriate team in 1994 and a refugee side in 2014.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
In Canton, painters like Lam Qua headed ateliers devoted to Export art, adapting styles from expatriate artists such as George Chinnery to gain foreign clientele.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Evidence is mounting that the draw of expatriate life extends beyond the cost of living.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
The embassy in Tehran usually counts around 30 expatriate employees, as well as a few dozen local staff members.
From Barron's ● Jan. 12, 2026
Between the windows some ancient wooden santos, and a couple of newer ones that had been carved and painted by the expatriate Snuffy Ledoux, were hanging.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Furthermore, many specialized engineers and welders have left as Western contractors evacuated expatriates from the conflict zone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
The Expo attracted expatriates who "want a dynamic life, close to fashion and design", said Diletta Giorgolo Spinola, head of residential offerings in Italy for Sotheby's.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
Since 2008, the U.S. has required expatriates with assets above $2 million pay a steep “exit tax” on the appreciation of all their property.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2026
Several hours later, she was one of hundreds of Venezuelan expatriates and Venezuelan Americans who gathered in the Miami suburb of Doral - the hub of South Florida's Venezuelan community - to celebrate.
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2026
Anaheim had been settled in the late nineteenth century by German immigrants hoping to create a local wine industry and by a group of Polish expatriates trying to establish a back-to-the-land artistic community.
From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser
The story follows a Russian writer named M, who has expatriated to someplace in Europe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
Along with his second wife, Shirley Graham, Du Bois expatriated to Ghana in his final years, where he joined an ensemble of Pan-Africanists dedicated to President Kwame Nkrumah’s extraordinary experiment in postcolonial nation-building.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 6, 2023
But perhaps the greatest inspiration however came from the life of Smith herself who died in 2010 but, as noted in Rees’ 2008 documentary “Eventual Salvation,” expatriated in Monrovia, Liberia in 1954.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2017
Nearly 1,800 citizens and permanent residents, a record since data was first compiled in 1998, expatriated last year, according to government figures.
From Reuters ● Jul. 9, 2012
His father was a French physician whose ancestors had been expatriated by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 "Finland" to "Fleury, Andre" by Various
Not too long ago, I was speaking with a friend who recently left journalism for much more lucrative pastures, and who is seriously thinking about expatriating from the United States.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 24, 2023
As if we needed another reason to dream longingly of expatriating.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2018
He did this by expatriating money using mirror trades.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 22, 2016
Nobuoka also said she thinks about expatriating but still hopes the country will change.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 18, 2016
"Have you an idea of expatriating yourself—of 'quitting your country for your country's good'?"
From St. Elmo by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
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.
