asylum
/əˈsaɪləm/
asylum noun: a place of safety or refuge.
Noun
asylum (countable and uncountable, plural asylums or asyla)
- A place of safety or refuge.
- All the busy concerns of daily existence were utterly abhorrent to me. I loathed the sound of others' voices—I hated to be mixed up with their petty routine of ordinary cares; here was an asylum offered to me—here I might lay down all the offices of humanity, and dwell beside that grave whose rest...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 295
- The first resolution she could take, in the present flutter of her spirits, was to make the best of her way to London, where she thought she might find an asylum in the house of a female relation, married to an eminent physician, known by the name of Kawdle.1835, Tobias Smollett, Walter Scott, Select Works of Tobias Smollett With a Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Author, volume 2, page 265
- The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees).
- So lawyers started filing separate asylum requests for the children, arguing that reintegrating in countries they barely knew, after spending their childhood or adolescence in Belgium, would not only be impossible but would expose them to serious risks.2020 August 5, Francesca Spinelli, “Meet David: born in France, raised in Belgium, facing removal to the DRC”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Jan 2021
- A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.
- Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
Verb
asylum (third-person singular simple present asylums, present participle asyluming, simple past and past participle asylumed)
- to place in an asylum
- It was she who in the last few years had spread abroad the notion that Charles Nagle, in the public interest, should be asylumed.1913, Marie Belloc Lowndes, chapter III, in Studies in Love & in Terror, page 144
- to grant protection or refuge
- We have..sheltered its paupers, asylumed its orphans, clothed its nakedness.1887, 6th Annual Session Baptist Congress
asylum meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
asylum in Hindi
- place of safety
- पनाह panāh, पनाहगाह panāhgāh, शरण śaraṇ
- mental asylum — see also mental hospital
- पागलख़ाना pāgalxānā
asylum in Tamil
- place of safety
- அடைக்கலம் aṭaikkalam, தஞ்சம் tañcam
- mental asylum — see also mental hospital
- மனநல காப்பகம் maṉanala kāppakam
asylum in Urdu
- place of safety
- پَناہ panāh, پَناہ گاہ panāh gāh
asylum in Bengali
- place of safety
- পানা pana
More languagesFewer languages
- asylum in Telugu
- ఆశ్రయము āśrayamu
- asylum in Malayalam
- സങ്കേതം saṅkētaṁ
- asylum in Kannada
- ತಳಿ, ಮೊಗ್ಗು, ತಾಣ, ನೆಲೆ
- asylum in Gujarati
- રાજ્યાશ્રય rājyāśraya
- asylum in Odia
- ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠା pratiṣṭhā, ଯୁତକ jutaka
- asylum in Sanskrit
- ओकस् okas
- asylum in Pashto
- پناه panāh, پناه ګاه panāh gāh
- asylum in Tagalog
- kalingaan
- asylum in Arabic
- مَلْجَأ maljaʔ, مَوْئِل mawʔil, لُجُوء lujūʔ
- asylum in Malay
- suaka
- asylum in Indonesian
- asilum, suaka, perlindungan, pengungsian
- asylum in Vietnamese
- viện cứu tế
- asylum in Myanmar
- ခိုလှုံခွင့် hkuihlumhkwang.
Examples of asylum in a sentence
- The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.
- We should not condone the assignment of asylum seekers to that of people smugglers.
- After thirty years in the asylum, deinstitutionalization would present many problems.
Synonyms of asylum
Forms of asylum
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | asylums |
| plural | asyla |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | asylums |
| present participle | asyluming |
| past participle | asylumed |
| past | asylumed |
Origin of asylum
Learned borrowing from Latin asȳlum, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).
Words formed from asylum
Phrases with asylum
Words that rhyme with asylum
Questions about asylum
- What does asylum mean?
- Asylum means a place of safety or refuge.
- What is asylum in Hindi?
- Asylum in Hindi is पनाह (panāh), पनाहगाह (panāhgāh), शरण (śaraṇ). See Asylum meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is asylum?
- Asylum can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce asylum?
- Asylum is pronounced /əˈsaɪləm/.
- What is the plural of asylum?
- The plural of asylum is asylums.
Words near asylum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: asylum (page history and authors); ఆశ్రయము (Telugu) (page history and authors); സങ്കേതം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); asylum (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); રાજ્યાશ્રય (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠା (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-asylum.ogg.
Cite this entry: “asylum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/asylum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.