What does "deportation" mean?

The act of deporting or exiling, or the state of being deported; banishment; transportation.

Deportation

Common synonyms include: banishment, clearance, communication, conduction, convection, degradation.

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The act of deporting or exiling, or the state of being deported; banishment; transportation. countable, uncountable
"Garcia is one of many undocumented people in America who earn their living in construction. He and millions of others now face the prospect of mass deportations during President-elect Donald Trump’s term. Trump has said that undocumented immigrants share the blame for America’s once-in-a-generation home affordability crisis, but the president-elect’s deportation plans may backfire, driving up the cost of homebuying even further."
2
the expulsion from a country of an undesirable alien wordnet
3
the act of expelling a person from their native land wordnet

"It is unlikely that this indictment will lead to his deportation."

From Middle French déportation, equivalent to deport + -ation.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.