exodus
noun
ˈeg-zə-
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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
Amaris Encinas, USA Today, 18 Apr. 2025
And since Meta has no interest in buying TikTok, due to fears of basing business in China, Big Tech on Trial reported, Meta's only choice was to TikTok-ify its apps to avoid a mass exodus after Facebook users started declining for the first time in 2022.
—ArsTechnica, 17 Apr. 2025
The Bay Area was the first metropolis to issue shelter-in-place orders, starting a remote work exodus as coders and corporate chiefs left San Francisco’s downtown core.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2025
The ensuing exodus could weaken the agency’s ability to collect taxes.
—Alexis Simendinger, The Hill, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for exodus
Cite this Entry
“Exodus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exodus. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
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exodus
noun
from Latin Exodus "a book of the Bible," derived from Greek exodos "a road or journey out," from ex- "out" and hodos "road"
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