Meaning & use
expatriate
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Meanings
nouncountableformal
A person who lives in a country other than the one where they were born, often for work.
Grammar: Countable; often shortened to expat: an expatriate community.
Patterns
- an expatriate in a country
She joined a small community of British expatriates in Lisbon.
Many expatriates send money home to their families.
The company pays housing costs for its expatriates.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Living or staying outside your home country.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: an expatriate worker.
Patterns
- an expatriate community
The expatriate workers received a relocation allowance.
He wrote for an expatriate magazine in Paris.
An expatriate American, she taught English in Seoul.
verbtransitive or intransitiveformalrare
To leave your home country to live elsewhere, or to send someone away from their country.
Grammar: Rare; often in the passive or as expatriate oneself.
Patterns
- expatriate yourself
He chose to expatriate himself after the political upheaval.
The regime tried to expatriate its critics.
Few people expatriate permanently.
Word forms
| plural | expatriates |
|---|---|
| third person singular | expatriates |
| past tense | expatriated |
| past participle | expatriated |
| -ing form | expatriating |
Common combinations
- expatriate community
- The expatriate community meets every Sunday.
- expatriate worker
- Expatriate workers often move every few years.
- expatriate package
- His expatriate package included a car and tuition.
- American expatriate
- An American expatriate ran the café.
- live as an expatriate
- She has lived as an expatriate for ten years.
Synonyms and how they differ
- expat
- Expat is the shortened, more casual form of expatriate.
- emigrant
- Emigrant stresses leaving your country, often permanently, while expatriate suggests living abroad as a foreigner.
- immigrant
- Immigrant describes the person from the view of the new country, usually intending to stay.
- exile
- Exile means being forced to live abroad, whereas an expatriate usually chooses to.
Opposites
Word family
- expat noun
- a casual short form
- expatriation noun
- the act of living or being sent abroad
- repatriate verb
- to send or bring back to one's home country
- patriot noun
- a person who loves their country
Commonly confused: expatriate or ex-patriot?
expatriate vs ex-patriot
Ex-patriot is a common misspelling; it would mean a former patriot, not a person living abroad.
Practice
A teacher from Canada working in Japan for several years is best described as an ____.
Choose one answer.
Expatriate is the correct word for someone living abroad by choice. Ex-patriot is a misspelling, and exile implies being forced to leave.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “expatriate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.