migration

noun

mi·​gra·​tion mī-ˈgrā-shən How to pronounce migration (audio)
: the act, process, or an instance of migrating
watched the migration of the birds overhead
migrational adjective

Examples of migration in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In her argot, Ibsen’s characters sound like slow-talking, fast-thinking products of migration across the U.S.—people with country manners and city coolness lurking within. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2024 Despite the recent increase in violence and political turmoil in Haiti, the U.S. has not yet seen a spike in maritime migration in the Caribbean Sea that would trigger longstanding contingency plans that include housing migrants at Guantanamo Bay, two U.S. officials tell CBS News. Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, 19 Mar. 2024 The international migration offset the departure of more than 47,000 residents who left Miami-Dade County for other U.S. counties. Mike Schneider, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024 The study, which was posted to the preprint server bioRxiv last month and has not yet been peer reviewed, also examined the Iranian ancestry of Indian people and found that a migration out of Africa around 50,000 years ago contributed most of India’s current genetic diversity. Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Mar. 2024 Babcock has studied the migration of Central Americans to Chicago. Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2024 Once the Biden regime began building tunnels underneath American immigration law, the resulting stampede of migration from all over the world began trampling down the very geographic features that had protected the U.S. from mass migration from South America. Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 12 Mar. 2024 As in previous migration waves, the U.S. government responded by forcefully returning most migrants back to Haiti. Michael Wilner, Miami Herald, 8 Mar. 2024 The survival of the sponsorship program is a major legal victory for the Biden administration, which has sought to combine legal migration pathways and tighter asylum rules to contain unprecedented levels of migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border, with varying degrees of success. Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'migration.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

French or Latin; French, from Latin migration-, migratio, from migratus (past participle of migrare to migrate) + -ion-, -io -ion — more at migrate

First Known Use

circa 1527, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of migration was circa 1527

Dictionary Entries Near migration

Cite this Entry

“Migration.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/migration. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

migration

noun
mi·​gra·​tion
mī-ˈgrā-shən
1
: the act or an instance of migrating
2
: a group of individuals that are migrating

Medical Definition

migration

noun
mi·​gra·​tion mī-ˈgrā-shən How to pronounce migration (audio)
: the act, process, or an instance of migrating
migration of larval nematodes to the lungs
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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