migration

noun

mi·​gra·​tion mī-ˈgrā-shən 

: the act, process, or an instance of migrating

watched the migration of the birds overhead

migrational

mī-ˈgrā-sh(ə-)nəl 

adjective

Examples of migration in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And last year, Barriga and his colleagues showed that frog embryos generate natural electric fields that guide the migration of specific stem cells to their proper locations in the developing embryo. —Elise Cutts, Quanta Magazine, 12 Jan. 2026

One of Maduro’s darkest legacies was the exodus of 8 million Venezuelans during his 13-year rule, one of the largest mass migrations in modern history. —Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2026

As a result, young people have become an export commodity; over 317,000 Ugandans now labor in the Gulf, one of Africa’s highest rates of menial migration. —Charles Onyango-Obbo, semafor.com, 12 Jan. 2026

Largely invisible at the time, especially compared with the vast Italian and Jewish migrations a century earlier, these influxes were ultimately just as transformative. —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 12 Jan. 2026

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

Phrases Containing migration

• pre-migration

Rhymes for migration

• ablation
• bination
• carnation
• cassation
• castration
• causation
• centration
• cessation
• cetacean
• chelation
• citation
• collation

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 

: the act, process, or an instance of migrating

migration of larval nematodes to the lungs