refugee
How to Use Refugee
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishSomeone forced to leave their home country, usually because staying would put them in danger.
A refugee has fled across an international border; someone displaced but still inside their own country is usually called an "internally displaced person," not a refugee.
Word Forms
refugeed past tense, refugees plural, refugees singular
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
The camp housed thousands of _____ from the conflict.
Etymology
From French réfugié, "one who has taken refuge," originally describing French Protestants fleeing religious persecution in the 1680s; the modern broader sense of civilians fleeing war dates to World War I.