Meaning & use
evacuation
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
The organized process of moving people away from a dangerous place to a safe one.
Grammar: Can be countable (an evacuation, the evacuations) or uncountable (the evacuation of the city).
Patterns
- evacuation of someone
- evacuation from a place
- mass evacuation
- emergency evacuation
The evacuation of the coastal towns began before the hurricane arrived.
Thousands of people took part in the evacuation from the flooded region.
The school held a practice evacuation to prepare for a fire.
Word forms
| plural | evacuations |
|---|
Common combinations
- mass evacuation
- The mass evacuation of the city took three days.
- emergency evacuation
- The hospital carried out an emergency evacuation when the power failed.
- evacuation route
- Follow the evacuation route signs to reach higher ground.
- evacuation order
- The mayor issued an evacuation order for low-lying areas.
- evacuation procedure
- All staff must know the evacuation procedure in case of fire.
Synonyms and how they differ
- removal
- Removal is a general word for taking something away; evacuation is used only for moving people from danger.
- exodus
- Exodus suggests a large group leaving voluntarily, while evacuation usually implies an official, organized move.
Opposites
Word family
- evacuate verb
- To move people from a dangerous place to safety.
- evacuee noun
- A person who has been evacuated.
Commonly confused: evacuation or evacuation?
evacuation vs evacuation
Do not confuse with 'vacation' (a holiday); evacuation is about safety, not leisure.
Practice
The government ordered the ______ of all residents within five miles of the volcano.
Choose one answer.
'Evacuation' is the noun needed after 'the'; 'evacuate' is a verb and would need a different structure, and 'vacation' means holiday, which does not fit the dangerous context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “evacuation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.