Emigrant or immigrant?
emigrant is a noun meaning “Someone who leaves a country to settle in a new country”; immigrant is a noun meaning “A non-native person who comes to a country from another country to permanently…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) immigrant is about 26 times as common as emigrant.
What is the difference between emigrant and immigrant?
| emigrant | immigrant | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | Someone who leaves a country to settle in a new country Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Catopsilia. Also called a migrant | A non-native person who comes to a country from another country to permanently settle there A plant or animal that establishes itself in an area where it previously did not exist Of or relating to immigrants or the act of immigrating |
| Example | none recorded | Approximately 1.5 million Mexicans are descendants of Irish immigrants |
| Forms | emigrants | immigrants |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɛmɪɡɹənt/ | /ˈɪmɪɡɹənt/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 11 times per million words |
Sources: emigrant and immigrant in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of emigrant and immigrant
emigrant
- 1
Someone who leaves a country to settle in a new country
- 2
Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Catopsilia. Also called a migrant
immigrant
- 1
A non-native person who comes to a country from another country to permanently settle there
Approximately 1.5 million Mexicans are descendants of Irish immigrants
- 2
Of or relating to immigrants or the act of immigrating
- 3
A plant or animal that establishes itself in an area where it previously did not exist
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, emigrant or immigrant?
emigrant appears about once in every 2 million words; immigrant 11 times per million words.
emigrant about once in every 2 million wordsimmigrant 11 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search emigrant vs immigrant?
“emigrant vs immigrant” is searched about 6,600 times a month on Google and 130 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“immigrant vs emigrant”, “emigrant or immigrant”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.