migrant
Americanadjective
noun
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migrants
plural
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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.
See Examples For:
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's revision of settlement plans for migrant care workers features prominently in Tuesday's papers.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
It is frequently criticised by migrant rights groups who accuse it of engaging in the illegal "pushback" of migrants.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
He continued to face criticism for the disappearance of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who were supposed to be monitored by the agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement after entering the country.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has set aside the death sentence handed to a Sri Lankan migrant worker over a comment he made on Facebook, Colombo's Deputy Foreign Minister Arun Hemachandra said.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
A few bring bags of cement, to help build the migrant shelter.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
Maya Guerra, the 21-year-old daughter of Latino migrants, told AFP in Houston that she saw Talarico as a source of hope.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
The paper notes that MPs were warned by the home secretary that some migrants would still face "retrospective rule changes to make them wait a decade" before granting them leave to remain, the paper reports.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce her final decision on immigration rules for legal migrants next week.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
"This is a very sensitive issue for us, since we want to give dignity to human beings, to migrants, to refugees," he added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026
El Gusano de Hierro, some migrants call it.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
