immigrant

[im-i-gruhnt]

noun

1. a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.

2. an organism found in a new habitat.

adjective

1. of or relating to immigrants and immigration.

   a department for immigrant affairs.

2. immigrating.

immigrant

/ ˈɪmɪɡrənt /

noun

1. 1. a person who comes to a country in order to settle there Compare emigrant

   2. ( as modifier )

      an immigrant community

2. an animal or plant that lives or grows in a region to which it has recently migrated

Other Word Forms

• nonimmigrant noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of immigrant¹

An Americanism first recorded in 1780–90; from Latin immigrant-, stem of immigrāns “moving into,” present participle of immigrāre “to move into”; equivalent to im- ¹ + migrant

Example Sentences

A Reform government would close asylum hotels, she said, and "Welsh families and veterans" would be "first in the queue for housing, first in the queue for support, not illegal immigrants".

From BBC

The Democratic-led California Legislature is considering nearly a dozen bills aimed at shielding immigrants who are in the country illegally, including helping children of families being ripped apart in the enforcement actions.

From Los Angeles Times

The author was born in Omaha to Haitian immigrant parents, though Gay stresses that her path “wasn’t particularly difficult in that I grew up middle class and then upper middle class.”

From Los Angeles Times

The fires forced the evacuation of the Chinese Camp Town, which is a California Gold Rush mining town where thousands of Chinese immigrants settled in the late 1800s.

From Los Angeles Times

“We are seeing Black and immigrant communities targeted and identified in particular. We know that’s going to continue,” she said.

From Salon