refugee
/ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/
refugee noun: a person seeking refuge (as for shelter or protection), especially in a foreign country, out of fear or prospect of political, religious persecution, war, natural disaster, etc.
Noun
refugee (plural refugees)
- A person seeking refuge (as for shelter or protection), especially in a foreign country, out of fear or prospect of political, religious persecution, war, natural disaster, etc.
- In 1962 a special law had to be passed to permit the immigration of several thousand Chinese refugees who had escaped from Communist China to Hong Kong.1964, John F. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 78–79
- The eight military bases being used to house Afghan refugees have a total capacity of 50,000 to house evacuees. […] The nine refugee resettlement agencies who work in coordination with the federal government will ultimately determine where Afghans are relocated, based on whether they have US ties...2021 September 13, Priscilla Alvarez and Oren Liebermann, “Inside the effort to resettle thousands of Afghans in the United States”, in CNN
- A person who is fleeing from justice, punishment deemed righteous, etc.; a runaway, a fugitive.
Verb
refugee (third-person singular simple present refugees, present participle refugeeing, simple past and past participle refugeed)
- To convey (slaves) away from the advance of the federal forces.
refugee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
refugee in Hindi
- person granted formal asylum
- शरणार्थी śarṇārthī
- person seeking political asylum
- शरणार्थी śarṇārthī
- person seeking economic asylum
- शरणार्थी śarṇārthī
- person seeking refuge from natural disaster
- शरणार्थी śarṇārthī
refugee in Tamil
- person granted formal asylum
- அகதி akati
- person seeking political asylum
- அகதி akati
- person seeking economic asylum
- அகதி akati
- person seeking refuge from natural disaster
- அகதி akati
refugee in Urdu
- person seeking political asylum
- پناہ گزین panāh-guzīn
refugee in Bengali
- person seeking political asylum
- শরণার্থী śoronarthi
More languagesFewer languages
- refugee in Telugu
- శరణార్థి śaraṇārthi, శరణాగతుడు śaraṇāgatuḍu, కాందిశీకుడు kāndiśīkuḍu
- refugee in Malayalam
- അഭയാർത്ഥി abhayāṟtthi
- refugee in Kannada
- ನೆಲೆಯಿಲ್ಲದವನು, ಮರೆಹೊಕ್ಕವನು, ಮರೆಹೊಗುಗ
- refugee in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ਰਨਾਰਥੀ śarnārathī
- refugee in Assamese
- শৰণাৰ্থী xoronarthi
- refugee in Nepali
- शरणार्थी śaraṇārthī
- refugee in Pashto
- پناهګزين panāhguzín
- refugee in Arabic
- لَاجِئ lājiʔ, لَاجِئَة lājiʔa
- refugee in Malay
- pelari, pelarian, pengungsi
- refugee in Indonesian
- pengungsi
- refugee in Persian
- پَناهَندِه panâhande, فراری farâri
- refugee in Thai
- ผู้ลี้ภัย pûu-líi-pai
- refugee in Vietnamese
- người tị nạn, người tỵ nạn, tị nạn, tỵ nạn
- refugee in Myanmar
- ဒုက္ခသည် dukhka.sany
Examples of refugee in a sentence
- It might attract some inner-city Catholic traditionalist Labour refugees from Labour's left, but many of those were already gentrifying.2010, Brian Harrison, Finding a Role?: The United Kingdom 1970-1990, page 2181:
- Alluding to the regional consequences of a war in the Taiwan Strait, Zelensky pointed out that there could be millions of refugees, similar to the result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.2022 June 13, “Video shows Zelensky call on world to help Taiwan before China invades”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 13...
- The difference between Ukrainian refugees and other reluctant exiles is that Ukrainians are desperate to return.2024 September 4, Vitali Vitaliev, “A salute to Ukraine's 'Second Army'”, in RAIL, number 1017, page 49:
Synonyms of refugee
Forms of refugee
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | refugees |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | refugees |
| present participle | refugeeing |
| past participle | refugeed |
| past | refugeed |
Origin of refugee
From French réfugié, past participle of réfugier (“to take refuge, to seek refuge”), from Old French refuge (“hiding place”) from Latin refugium (“a place of refuge, place to flee back to”), originally describing French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Noun sense 1 was "one seeking asylum" until 1914, when it evolved to mean more generally "one fleeing home" (first applied in this sense to civilians in Flanders heading west to escape fighting in World War I). By surface analysis, refuge + -ee. Displaced native Old English flīema.
Words formed from refugee
Phrases with refugee
Words that rhyme with refugee
Questions about refugee
- What does refugee mean?
- Refugee means a person seeking refuge (as for shelter or protection), especially in a foreign country, out of fear or prospect of political, religious persecution, war, natural disaster, etc.
- What is refugee in Hindi?
- Refugee in Hindi is शरणार्थी (śarṇārthī). See Refugee meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use refugee in a sentence?
- It might attract some inner-city Catholic traditionalist Labour refugees from Labour's left, but many of those were already gentrifying.
- What part of speech is refugee?
- Refugee can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce refugee?
- Refugee is pronounced /ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/.
- What is the plural of refugee?
- The plural of refugee is refugees.
Words near refugee in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: refugee (page history and authors); refugee (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-refugee.wav.
Cite this entry: “refugee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/refugee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.