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repatriation

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,834 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: repatriations

Repatriation is the sending of people back to their own country. Voluntary repatriation, the repatriation of refugees, repatriation flights.

It covers the living, the dead and money alike, so profits and remains are both repatriated. Voluntary repatriation is the word's honest use, and forced repatriation is where the argument starts.

Definitions of repatriation

  1. 1nounrepatriationThe sending of people back to their own country.C1

    “The airline ran repatriation flights for a fortnight after the coup.”

repatriation is a sending back.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin repatriatio means a restoring to the homeland, from re plus patria, native country.

  1. Italian

    repatriazione

  2. Medieval Latin

    repatriātiō — act of restoring someone to their homeland

  3. English, today

    repatriation

Either a Medieval Latin repatriātiō (“act of restoring someone to their homeland”) or from Italian repatriazione and remodelled after words in -ation. by surface analysis, repatriate + -ion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

repatriation in the wild

  • A program of federal grants assists in the repatriation process and the Secretary of the Interior may assess civil penalties on museums that fail to comply.

    Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

  • For refugees, asylum seekers and illegal migrants, repatriation can mean either voluntary return or deportation.

    Repatriation

  • Although the federal government supported repatriation, city and state governments largely organized and encouraged it, often with support from local private entities.

    Mexican Repatriation

  • However, voluntary repatriation was far more common than formal deportation, and federal officials were minimally involved.

    Mexican Repatriation

  • In the early 21st century, debates about the colonial context of acquisitions by Western collections have centered both around arguments against and in favor of repatriations.

    Repatriation (cultural property)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.