emigrate

emigrate — verb

1. to move away from the country where you were born or have lived, with the intent

1.verbintransitiveB2
Definition

to move away from the country where you were born or have lived, with the intention of settling permanently in a different country

Example

Ravi and his family emigrated from India to Canada in 2019.

emigrate from [country] to [country] — full pattern

Many young engineers emigrate to find better job opportunities abroad.

emigrate + infinitive of purpose

Common collocations
  • emigrate from
  • emigrate to
  • emigrate permanently
  • emigrate abroad
  • emigrate overseas
Synonyms
  • migrate

    broader term — used for both people and animals; can be seasonal or temporary, whereas emigrate is always permanent

  • relocate

    more general and formal — can refer to moving within the same country; does not carry the cross-border implication

  • move abroad

    less formal, common in conversation; slightly weaker on the permanence requirement

Antonyms
  • immigrate

    the mirror action from the receiving country's perspective

  • repatriate

    to return to your own country after living abroad

Grammar Patterns

emigrate + from + place

emigrate + to + place

Usage Note

Intransitive only — you cannot 'emigrate someone.' The origin country is typically introduced with from, and the destination with to. Unlike migrate, which can describe seasonal or temporary movement, emigrate always implies a permanent relocation.

Common Mistakes

My grandparents immigrated from Poland in the 1980s.
My grandparents emigrated from Poland in the 1980s.
immigrate emphasises the destination country you are entering; emigrate emphasises the country you are leaving.
The company emigrated its workers to the new factory.
The workers emigrated from their home country to the new factory.
emigrate is intransitive and cannot take a direct object.

Word family

  • emigrant
    nounB2
  • emigration
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Emigrate, immigrate, and migrate all describe movements between places, but from different viewpoints. Emigrate looks from the country being left — you emigrate from Korea. Immigrate looks from the country being entered — you immigrate to Canada. Migrate is the neutral umbrella term covering both directions and is also used for animals; it does not imply permanence. Relocate is broader still — it can mean moving across town or across the world; it carries a formal, often corporate tone. Move abroad is the everyday conversational phrase, softer on the permanence requirement and commonly used for temporary work postings. For example: 'We moved abroad for two years' sounds natural, but 'We emigrated for two years' sounds contradictory because emigrate implies a permanent break.

emigrate ↗immigratemigrate ↗relocate ↗move abroad

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • emigrate to a new country
  • emigrate overseas
  • emigrate for good

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Emigrate comes from the Latin verb emigrare, formed from e- (meaning 'out of') and migrare (meaning 'to move or change residence'). It entered English directly from Latin in the late 1700s, originally used in legal and political writing about people leaving one nation for another.