refugee

English

Etymology

From French réfugié, past participle of réfugier (“to take refuge”), describing early French Protestants seeking refuge after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685. Analyzable as refuge +‎ -ee.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛfjʊdʒiː/, /ɹɛfjʊˈdʒiː/
• Rhymes: -iː

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

refugee (plural refugees)

1. A person seeking refuge in a foreign country out of fear of political persecution or the prospect of such persecution in their home country, i.e., a person seeking political asylum.
2. A person seeking refuge due to a natural disaster, war, etc.
3. A person formally granted political or economic asylum by a country other than their home country.
4. (by extension) A person who flees one place or institution for another.
   • 2010, Brian Harrison, Finding a Role?: The United Kingdom 1970-1990 (page 2181)

     Why did the SDP dream eventually fade? Partly because it succeeded far better inside parliament than out. It might attract some inner-city Catholic traditionalist Labour refugees from Labour's left, but many of those were already gentrifying.

Derived terms

• rapefugee
• reffo
• refugeehood
• refugitive

Translations

person seeking political asylum

• Arabic: لَاجِئ‎ m (lājiʾ)
• Armenian: փախստական (hy) (pʿaxstakan)
• Assamese: শৰণাৰ্থী (xoronarthi)
• Azerbaijani: qaçqın (az)
• Bashkir: ҡасҡын (qasqïn)
• Belarusian: уце́кач m (ucjékač)
• Bengali: রণার্থী (rônarthi)
• Bulgarian: бежанец (bg) m (bežanec)
• Burmese: ဒုက္ခသည် (my) (dukhka.sany)
• Catalan: refugiat (ca) m, refugiada (ca) f
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (政治 zhèngzhì) 難民 (zh), 难民 (zh) (nànmín), 避難者, 避难者 (bìnànzhě)

• Crimean Tatar: qaçaq
• Czech: uprchlík (cs) m, uprchlice (cs) f
• Danish: flygtning (da)
• Dinka: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: vluchteling (nl) m
• Esperanto: rifuĝinto (male or female), rifuĝintino (female)
• Estonian: pagulane
• Faroese: flóttafólk n
• Finnish: pakolainen (fi)
• French: réfugié (fr) m, réfugiée (fr) f
• Galician: refuxiado (gl) m, refuxiada f
• Georgian: ლტოლვილი (lṭolvili)
• German: Flüchtling (de) m, Flüchtlingin (de) f (obsolete), Asylant (de) m, Asylantin (de) f, Asylbewerber (de) m, Asylbewerberin (de) f
• Greek: πρόσφυγας (el) m or f (prósfygas)
• Greenlandic: qimaasoq
• Haitian Creole: refigye, refijye
• Hindi: शरणार्थी (hi) m (śarṇārthī)
• Hungarian: menekült (hu)
• Icelandic: flóttamaður (is) m
• Italian: rifugiato (it) m, rifugiata (it) f
• Japanese: 難民 (ja) (なんみん, nanmin)
• Kazakh: босқын (bosqın)
• Khmer: ជនភៀសខ្លួន (cɔɔn pʰiəh kluən)
• Korean: 난민 (ko) (nanmin) (難民)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: پەنابەر‎ (ku) (penaber)

  Northern Kurdish: penaber (ku)

• Lao: ຜູ້ລີ້ໄພ (phū lī phai)
• Latin: profugus m
• Latvian: bēglis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: pabėgėlis m
• Macedonian: бегалец (begalec)
• Malay: pelarian, pengungsi
• Maori: konene
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Nepali: शरणार्थी (śaraṇārthī)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flyktning (no) m

  Nynorsk: flyktning m

• Old English: flīema m
• Persian: پناهنده‎ (fa) (panâhande)
• Polish: uchodźca (pl) m, uchodźczyni (pl) f
• Portuguese: refugiado (pt) m, refugiada f
• Rohingya: please add this translation if you can
• Romansch: fugitiv
• Russian: бе́женец (ru) m (béženec), бе́женка (ru) f (béženka)
• Scottish Gaelic: fògarrach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: избеглица m, избjеглица m

  Roman: izbeglica (sh) m, izbjeglica m

• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: utečenec m, utečenkyňa f
• Slovene: begunec (sl) m, pribežnik m, pribežnica f
• Spanish: refugiado (es) m, refugiada (es) f
• Swahili: mkimbizi (sw)
• Swedish: flykting (sv) c
• Tajik: паноҳанда (panohanda)
• Tamil: அகதி (ta) (akati)
• Thai: ผู้ลี้ภัย (pûu-líi-pai)
• Tibetan: བཙན་བྱོལ་བ (btsan byol ba)
• Turkish: sığınmacı (tr), mülteci (tr), göçmen (tr)
• Ukrainian: бі́женець (uk) m (bíženecʹ)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: người tị nạn, người tỵ nạn, tị nạn (vi), tỵ nạn
• Yiddish: פּליט‎ m (polet)

person seeking economic asylum

• Arabic: لَاجِئ‎ m (lājiʾ)
• Armenian: փախստական (hy) (pʿaxstakan)
• Bashkir: ҡасҡын (qasqïn)
• Bulgarian: икономически емигрант m (ikonomičeski emigrant)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: refugiat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (經濟 / 经济 jīngjì) 難民 (zh), 难民 (zh) (nànmín)

• Czech: uprchlík (cs) m
• Danish: flygtning (da) c
• Dinka: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: pakolainen (fi)
• French: réfugié (fr) m
• German: Flüchtling (de) m
• Hungarian: menekült (hu)

• Japanese: 難民 (ja) (なんみん, nanmin)
• Latin: profugus m
• Malay: pelari
• Maori: konene
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flyktning (no) m

  Nynorsk: flyktning m

• Portuguese: expatriado (pt) m
• Russian: бе́женец (ru) m (béženec)
• Slovene: begunec (sl)
• Spanish: refugiado (es) m
• Swahili: mkimbizi (sw)
• Swedish: flykting (sv) c
• Turkish: mülteci (tr), göçmen (tr)
• Vietnamese: người tị nạn, người tỵ nạn, tị nạn (vi), tỵ nạn

person seeking refuge from natural disaster

• Armenian: փախստական (hy) (pʿaxstakan)
• Bashkir: ҡасҡын (qasqïn)
• Bulgarian: бежанец (bg) m (bežanec)
• Burmese: ဒုက္ခသည် (my) (dukhka.sany)
• Catalan: refugiat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 災民 (zh), 灾民 (zh) (zāimín)

• Czech: uprchlík (cs) m
• Danish: flygtning (da) c
• Finnish: pakolainen (fi)
• Georgian: ლტოლვილი (lṭolvili)
• German: Flüchtling (de) m
• Hungarian: menekült (hu)
• Indonesian: pengungsi (id)
• Malay: pelari

• Maori: konene
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flyktning (no) m

  Nynorsk: flyktning m

• Polish: uchodźca (pl) m
• Portuguese: desabrigado (pt) m
• Russian: бе́женец (ru) m (béženec)
• Scottish Gaelic: fògarrach m
• Slovene: begunec (sl), pribežnik m, pribežnica f
• Spanish: refugiado (es) m
• Swahili: mkimbizi (sw)
• Swedish: flykting (sv) c
• Turkish: mülteci (tr), sığınmacı (tr), göçmen (tr)
• Vietnamese: người tị nạn, người tỵ nạn, tị nạn (vi), tỵ nạn

person granted formal asylum

• Armenian: փախստական (hy) (pʿaxstakan)
• Catalan: refugiat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 難民 (zh), 难民 (zh) (nànmín)

• Czech: uprchlík (cs) m
• Finnish: pakolainen (fi)
• German: Flüchtling (de) m
• Hungarian: menekült (hu)

• Malay: pelari
• Maori: konene
• Polish: uchodźca (pl) m
• Portuguese: asilado m
• Russian: бе́женец (ru) m (béženec)
• Scottish Gaelic: fògarrach m
• Swahili: mkimbizi (sw)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} refugiato
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} penaber (ku), ^{(please verify)} mihacir (ku), ^{(please verify)} miltecî (ku)

• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} pabėgėlis

• Malayalam: ^{(please verify)} അഭയാര്‍ത്ഥി (abhayār‍tthi) (1,2,3,4)
• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} ffoadur m

Verb

refugee (third-person singular simple present refugees, present participle refugeeing, simple past and past participle refugeed)

1. (transitive, US, historical) To convey (slaves) away from the advance of the federal forces.

See also

• asylum
• citizenshipless
• countryless
• economic asylum
• nationless
• political asylum
• refoulement
• refuge