Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An organism, especially an animal, that moves from one region to another (as for breeding) or that has established itself in an area where it previously did not exist.
  • noun An itinerant worker who travels from one area to another in search of work.
  • noun A person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another; an immigrant.
  • adjective Migratory.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Changing place; migratory.
  • noun One who migrates; a wanderer.
  • noun In zoology, specifically, a migratory animal, as a bird.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A migratory bird, person, or other animal.
  • noun A person who changes residence frequently in search of employment, especially farm labor, such as harvesting crops seasonally; also called migrant laborer or migrant worker. Sometimes the migrant worker is not a resident of the country in which the work is performed.
  • adjective Migratory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A migratory bird or other animal.
  • noun Traveller or worker who moves from one region or country to another.
  • adjective Migratory.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective habitually moving from place to place especially in search of seasonal work
  • noun traveler who moves from one region or country to another

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin migrāns, migrant-, present participle of migrāre, to migrate; see migrate.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • Spotted in the BBC

    "A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants."

    October 28, 2016