exodus

noun

ex·o·dus ˈek-sə-dəs

ˈeg-zə-

Synonyms of exodus next

capitalized : the mainly narrative second book of canonical Jewish and Christian Scripture see Bible Table

: a mass departure : emigration

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Don't Leave Without the History of Exodos

The Biblical book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, so it's no surprise that the word exodus, uncapitalized, has come to refer more generally to any mass departure. Exodus was adopted into English (via Latin) from the Greek word Exodos, which literally means “the road out.” Exodos was formed by combining the prefix ex-, meaning “out of,” and hodos, meaning “road” or “way.” Indeed, many roads led out of hodos into English; other hodos descendants include episode, method, odometer, and period. While exodus is occasionally encountered in reference to an individual’s leaving (e.g., “his/her/their exodus”), such usage is likely to raise the eyebrows of editors who feel it should only refer to the departure en masse of a large group of people, as when novelist Nnedi Okorafor writes in her science fiction novel Lagoon (2015): “Everyone was trying to get somewhere, be it a church, a bar, home or out of Lagos. Then there was the exodus of people … to the parts of the city that had the least chance of flooding if the water rose too high.”

Examples of exodus in a Sentence

the mass exodus from the cities for the beaches and the mountains on most summer weekends

Recent Examples on the Web

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

But now, social media posts indicate that an exodus of sorts could be underway, as, for example, seasonal and service industry workers struggle to find jobs here in the short term. —

Will McGough, Forbes, 19 Oct. 2024 Her three characters stand in for the approximately 6 million other Black Americans who made similar journeys as part of the mass exodus that would become known as the Great Migration. —

Jared Sullivan, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2024 And the insurance market in Florida is already in trouble, with an exodus of national insurance companies from the market, combined with numerous local private insurers facing financial problems. —

Chris Isidore, CNN, 17 Oct. 2024 Meanwhile, OpenAI is also trying to fend off an exodus of employees to a startup created by OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, who announced his exit in May. —

Jessica Mathews, Fortune, 15 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for exodus