diaspora

noun di·as·po·ra \dī-ˈas-p(ə-)rə, dē-\

: a group of people who live outside the area in which they had lived for a long time or in which their ancestors lived

Full Definition of DIASPORA

capitalized

a : the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile

b : the area outside Palestine settled by Jews

c : the Jews living outside Palestine or modern Israel

a : the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland <the black diaspora to northern cities>

b : people settled far from their ancestral homelands <African diaspora>

c : the place where these people live

— di·a·spor·ic \ˌdī-ə-ˈspȯr-ik\ adjective

See diaspora defined for English-language learners

Greek, dispersion, from diaspeirein to scatter, from dia- + speirein to sow

First Known Use: 1881

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