migration
American
noun
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the act or an instance of migrating
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a group of people, birds, etc, migrating in a body
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chem a movement of atoms, ions, or molecules, such as the motion of ions in solution under the influence of electric fields
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The seasonal movement of a complete population of animals from one area to another. Migration is usually a response to changes in temperature, food supply, or the amount of daylight, and is often undertaken for the purpose of breeding. Mammals, insects, fish, and birds all migrate. The precise mechanism of navigation during migration is not fully understood, although for birds it is believed that sharp eyesight, sensibility to the Earth's magnetic field, and the positions of the Sun and other stars may play a role.
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The movement of one atom or more, or of a double bond, from one position to another within a molecule.
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The movement of ions between electrodes during electrolysis.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of migration
First recorded in 1605–15, migration is from the Latin word migrātīon- (stem of migrātiō ). See migrate, -ion
Explanation
Migration is the movement of either people or animals from one area to another. Look up in the trees, where you might see a Monarch butterfly make a stop on its migration to Mexico. Migration can be used for the journey from one place to another or for the act of movement. Thousands of mid-western farmers made the migration to California during the dust bowl. Demographers have noted the migration of young people to the big cities presumably for work. With animals, it’s almost always in reference to a seasonal change in location. On boat tours, you can see the whales during their annual migration down the West coast.
Vocabulary lists containing migration
Words of a Feather: Unflappable Avian Vocabulary
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Human Geography - Middle School
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The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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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 Home Office expects arrivals to increase to the "low thousands" as levels of illegal migration fall.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Rapid shifts in Canada’s population growth since 2020 have been almost entirely due to changes in international migration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Where rules are not agreed or enforced, starvation and migration are rampant.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
“This is probably going to put them in touch with lots of other Latinos of different migration statuses in a way that is not necessarily about competition, but much more about helping,” Mora said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
This worldwide migration has been studied and graphically described by the British ecologist Charles Elton in his recent book The Ecology of Invasions.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Critics fear deep-sea mining will cause irreversible damage, smothering marine life in plumes of waste and disrupting oceanic migrations with the thrum of heavy machinery.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
They make it clear that it excludes neither sex-biased demographic processes nor more complex scenarios in which natural selection, differential migrations, and sex asymmetries may all have acted together.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
Since the indexes are weighted by market cap, migrations prevent large companies from dramatically skewing the performance of indexes meant for smaller companies.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
Then it flashes back to the 1490s expulsions of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, which triggered migrations to other European countries, North Africa and the New World.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
Their movements were influenced by the changing seasons, the annual migrations of animals and the growth cycles of plants.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
