migrant
Americanadjective
noun
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a person or animal that migrates.
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a person who attempts to permanently relocate to a new country, but who may be subject to removal by the government of that country: unaccompanied child migrants.
undocumented migrants;
unaccompanied child migrants.
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Also called migrant worker. a person who moves from place to place to get work, especially a farm laborer who harvests crops seasonally.
noun
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a person or animal that moves from one region, place, or country to another
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an itinerant agricultural worker who travels from one district to another
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an immigrant, esp a recent one
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( as modifier )
a migrant hostel
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adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of migrant
1665–75; < Latin migrant- (stem of migrāns ), present participle of migrāre. See migrate, -ant
Explanation
A migrant worker is someone who travels for a job––in the U.S., many farm workers migrate from Mexico every year to work on the harvest and then return home when their jobs are over. If you have traveled into a new country, you are said to have immigrated there, and you are an immigrant. An emigrant is someone who has left. Migrant doesn't refer to whether you are coming in or out––often it means someone who often travels back and forth, like migrant birds who migrate south every winter, year after year.
Vocabulary lists containing migrant
Mexico - Introductory
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Mexico - Middle School
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The Great Depression and The New Deal
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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.
The migrant was found unresponsive on a boat which had entered UK waters in the English Channel on Saturday, and died despite receiving medical help, the Home Office said.
From BBC • Jun. 21, 2026
He then spent three "very cold, very difficult" months in a migrant camp in Tenerife until he joined a project helping him to learn Spanish and find a way to stay on the island legally.
From BBC • Jun. 11, 2026
While rural regions appreciate having to pay less for social services for departed migrant workers, urban governments resist having to pay more.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 4, 2026
Another young migrant, 18-year-old Matar Top, who has braided hair, arrived from Senegal three years ago with similar hopes of sending money home.
From Barron's • Jun. 3, 2026
At a migrant labor camp not far from Duke, Farmer met a Belgian nun, Julianna DeWolf, who worked with Friends of the United Farm Workers.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
