migrate
/maɪˈɡɹeɪt/verb
migrate is spelled M-I-G-R-A-T-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “immigrate vs migrate” about 30 times a month (Bing, United States). As a verb, migrate means “To relocate periodically from one region to another, usually according to the seasons” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in migrate?
| Letters | 7: M-I-G-R-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is migrate?
Migrate appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce migrate?
- /maɪˈɡɹeɪt/
- /ˈmaɪ.ɡɹeɪt/
Migrate has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-migrate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with migrate
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with migrate?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as migrate.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ragtime.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of migrate
- migrates present, singular, he/she/it
- migrating participle, present
- migrated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does migrate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To relocate periodically from one region to another, usually according to the seasons.
Twice a year the geese migrate – from Florida to Canada and back again.
- 2
To change one's geographic pattern of habitation.
Many groups had migrated to western Europe from the plains of eastern Europe.
- 3
To change habitations across a border; to move from one country or political region to another.
To escape persecution, they migrated to a neutral country.
- 4
To move slowly towards, usually in groups.
Once the hosts started bickering in the kitchens, the guests began to migrate towards the living room.
- 5
To move gradually, especially from an intended to an unintended position.
Oil was able to migrate from the accessory gearbox into the magneto housing through the improperly installed gland seals.
- 6
To move computer code or files from one computer or network to another.
They had finished migrating all of the affected code to the production server by 2:00am, three hours later than expected.
- 7
To induce customers to shift purchases from one set of a company's related products to another.
We were hoping to migrate the customers of the "C" series to the "E" series and the "E" customers to the "S" series.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Migrate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to relocate periodically from one region to another:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does migrate come from?
First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin migrātus, perfect passive participle of migrō (“to migrate, change, transport”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).