Meaning & use
IDP
Last updated
Meanings
abbreviationcountabletechnical
A person forced to leave their home because of war or disaster who stays inside their own country rather than crossing a border.
Grammar: Stands for internally displaced person and has a plural: thousands of IDPs.
Patterns
- IDP camp
- IDPs from a region
Aid agencies delivered blankets to IDPs sheltering in schools.
An IDP is not a refugee, because he has not left his country.
Many IDPs hope to return home once the fighting stops.
abbreviationcountablebusiness
A document, often called an individual development plan, that sets out a person's learning goals and the steps for reaching them.
Grammar: Usually appears with an or the: I wrote an IDP with my manager.
Patterns
- write an IDP
- review your IDP
My manager and I updated my IDP at the start of the year.
The IDP lists the training courses I plan to take.
Each graduate trainee must complete an IDP within the first month.
abbreviationcountablecomputing
An identity provider, a service that confirms who a user is so they can log in to other websites or apps.
Grammar: Used mainly in computing: the IDP checks your password.
Patterns
- connect to an IDP
- IDP login
Our company uses a single IDP for all employee logins.
If the IDP is down, nobody can sign in to the app.
The developer configured the IDP to require two-step verification.
Word forms
| plural | IDPs |
|---|
Common combinations
- IDP camp
- Thousands of families live in the IDP camp near the border.
- IDPs and refugees
- The charity helps both IDPs and refugees.
- assist IDPs
- The agency works to assist IDPs after the floods.
- IDP settings
- Check the IDP settings before enabling single sign-on.
Synonyms and how they differ
- displaced person
- Displaced person is the plain-English phrase, whereas IDP is the official shorthand used by agencies for those who stay in their own country.
- refugee
- A refugee has crossed an international border, which an IDP has not, so the words cannot be swapped without changing the facts.
- evacuee
- An evacuee was moved out of danger, often in an organized way and temporarily, while an IDP may be displaced for years.
Word family
- displace verb
- to force someone to leave their home
- displacement noun
- the forced movement of people from their homes
- displaced adjective
- forced to leave home
Commonly confused: IDP or refugee?
IDP vs refugee
A refugee crosses into another country; an IDP stays inside their own, even though both have been forced from home.
Practice
What makes someone an IDP rather than a refugee?
Choose one answer.
An internally displaced person stays within national borders. Crossing a border, the first option, would make the person a refugee.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “IDP”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.