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. It carries an Arena rating of 1589, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, refugee ranks #36 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,203 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,525 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,234 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
refugee is pronounced /ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/.
Why “refugee” is a great word
A person who has been forced to flee their country to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. From French réfugié, past participle of réfugier ('to take refuge'), from Old French refuge ('hiding place'), from Latin refugium ('a place to flee back to'); first applied in the late 17th century to French Huguenots fleeing persecution, its modern sense of one fleeing home was established around 1914. Unlike an asylum seeker, whose legal status is pending, or a fugitive, who flees authority, a refugee is defined by an irrevocable rupture with homeland. It is the single suitcase on a dusty road, the papers clutched through checkpoints, the child's name called out in an unfamiliar language at a crowded border—the human shape of a world that has become uninhabitable.
Etymology
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.
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.e.g.“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:
- A person who is fleeing from justice, punishment deemed righteous, etc.; a runaway, a fugitive.
verb
- To convey (slaves) away from the advance of the federal forces.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- refugitive 71% match — A fugitive who seeks refuge in another state or country. vs refugee →
- fugitive 69% match — A person who flees or escapes and travels secretly from place to place, and sometimes using disguises and aliases to conceal their identity, as to avoid law authorities in order to avoid an arrest or prosecution, or to avoid some other unwanted situation. vs refugee →
- nonrefugee 66% match — A person who is not a refugee. vs refugee →
- emigre 65% match — One who has departed their native land, often as a refugee. vs refugee →
- refujew 65% match — A Jewish refugee. vs refugee →
- reffo 65% match — A refugee who has settled in Australia. vs refugee →
- refugeehood 65% match — The state of being a refugee. vs refugee →
- refuge 63% match — A state of safety, protection or shelter. vs refugee →