migrate
gb/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt/ us/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt/
B2
Anglais
~ 6400
Sens
0 sens
Verbe
B2
action
1
move to live or work elsewhere
To go to another country or area to live or work there, often for a long time.
Schéma d’usage :
[someone] migrates from [a place] to [a place]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners often confuse 'migrate', 'immigrate', and 'emigrate'. Use 'migrate' for the general movement of people or groups. Use 'emigrate from' to talk about leaving a country, and 'immigrate to' to talk about entering a new country. Example: 'They migrated during the drought', 'They emigrated from Syria', 'They immigrated to Canada'. Another mistake is adding an object: *'They migrated themselves to the city' is incorrect; say 'They migrated to the city'.
Synonymes
relocate (More general and often used for moving within the same country or company, not specifically about international movement of populations.)
|
emigrate (Focuses on leaving one’s home country permanently; more formal and precise than 'migrate'.)
Antonymes
settle (Emphasizes staying and making a permanent home instead of moving to a new region.)
|
remain (Highlights not moving away from the current place.)
Collocations
migrate to cities
|migrate from rural areas
|migrate in search of work
|migrate across borders
|migrate to urban centers
|migrate seasonally for jobs
Thèmes
society
|geography
|work
|travel
|core_vocabulary
Exemples
- Many young people migrate from rural villages to big cities in search of better jobs.
- After the war, thousands of families migrated to neighboring countries.
- Over the last decade, skilled workers have migrated from the region to North America.
- As the economy changed, people began to migrate inland from the coastal areas.
- Farmers sometimes migrate to the capital during the dry season to find temporary work.
Exemples pédagogiques
- Every year, many workers migrate to the city.
- Her parents migrated from Mexico to the United States.
- Some people migrate to another country to find a better life.
- After losing his job, he migrated to the capital to look for work.
Verbe
B2
event
2
animals’ regular seasonal movement
When animals, like birds or whales, travel to another place at the same time every year, often because of the weather or to have babies.
Schéma d’usage :
[animals] migrate to/from [a place]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners sometimes mix up 'migrate' and 'hibernate'. 'Migrate' means animals travel to another place; 'hibernate' means animals sleep deeply for a long time during winter. Example: 'Bears usually hibernate, but birds usually migrate.'
Synonymes
move (Very general; does not include the idea of regular, long-distance, seasonal travel like 'migrate' does.)
|
travel (Describes going from one place to another but lacks the specific biological and seasonal meaning of 'migrate'.)
Antonymes
remain (Focuses on animals staying in one area instead of moving between regions.)
|
stay put (Informal expression highlighting not moving at all.)
Collocations
birds migrate south
|herds migrate across the plains
|whales migrate thousands of kilometers
|fish migrate upstream
|species that migrate seasonally
|migrate to breeding grounds
Thèmes
nature
|animals
|science
Exemples
- Millions of birds migrate south for the winter.
- The wildebeest migrate across the Serengeti in search of fresh grass.
- These salmon migrate upstream to the river where they were born to spawn.
- Monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles to their wintering sites in Mexico.
- As the seasons change, many species migrate to warmer coastal waters.
Exemples pédagogiques
- Many birds migrate when it gets cold.
- Whales migrate to warm water to have their babies.
- Every year the animals migrate to find food.
- Some fish migrate up the river to lay eggs.
Verbe
C1
action
3
shift activity or users elsewhere
To move an activity, service, or group of people from one place or system to another place or system.
Schéma d’usage :
[something] migrates from [thing/place] to [thing/place]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners sometimes think 'migrate' can only be used for people or animals. In modern English, it is also common to say activities, users, or services 'migrate' from one platform or medium to another, especially in business and technology news.
Synonymes
shift (Broad and informal; emphasizes change but not necessarily movement between systems or places.)
|
transition (More formal; stresses a gradual change in form or state rather than simple movement.)
Antonymes
stay (Highlights that the activity or group does not move to a new system or place.)
|
remain (More formal; emphasizes continuing in the same situation or medium.)
Collocations
audiences migrate online
|services migrate to digital platforms
|customers migrate to competitors
|traffic migrates to mobile
|users migrate from one app to another
|content migrating to streaming
Thèmes
business
|technology
|media
|communication
Exemples
- Over the last decade, much of our shopping has migrated online.
- Young listeners are migrating from traditional radio to streaming platforms.
- Advertising budgets have gradually migrated from print to digital media.
- Many classroom activities migrated to video calls during the pandemic.
- Viewers quickly migrated to the new service after the show switched networks.
Exemples pédagogiques
- Many people have migrated from TV to online video.
- Our meetings migrated from the office to video calls.
- Most news has migrated from paper to the internet.
- Customers are migrating from the old app to the new one.
Verbe
technical
B2
action
4
move data or systems elsewhere
In computing, to move programs or data from one computer system or platform to another.
Schéma d’usage :
[someone] migrates [data/system] to [a platform]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners sometimes use 'update' or 'upgrade' when they really mean 'migrate'. 'Update' means to add the latest changes to the same system, and 'upgrade' means to move to a newer version. 'Migrate' means to move data or systems to a different environment or platform.
Synonymes
transfer (General word for moving data; does not always include the idea of changing platforms or systems like 'migrate' often does.)
|
port (Technical term that stresses adapting software so it can run on a different system, not just moving it.)
Antonymes
retain (In IT contexts, keeping data or systems on the existing platform instead of moving them.)
|
decommission (To take a system out of service entirely rather than move it to another environment.)
Collocations
migrate data
|migrate a database
|migrate users
|migrate to the cloud
|migrate from legacy systems
|migrate applications
Thèmes
technology
|computing
|business
Exemples
- The company plans to migrate all customer data to a new cloud platform.
- We need to migrate the old email system before support ends.
- IT has scheduled downtime this weekend to migrate the database servers.
- They successfully migrated their website from shared hosting to a dedicated server.
- Before you migrate user accounts, make sure you have a full backup.
Exemples pédagogiques
- The team will migrate the website to a new server.
- We are migrating our files to the cloud.
- They migrated all user data to the new system.
- IT will migrate the old app to a new platform.
Verbe
technical
C1
action
5
cells moving within an organism
In biology, when cells move from one place in the body to another place.
Schéma d’usage :
[cells] migrate to [a location]
Erreur fréquente :
Learners may not realize that 'migrate' is also used for cells, not only for people and animals. In scientific texts, 'cell migration' is a standard phrase and is not metaphorical.
Synonymes
move (Very general; lacks the technical biological context and patterns of 'migrate'.)
|
spread (Often used for disease or cancer; focuses on expansion rather than directed movement of individual cells.)
Antonymes
remain (Describes cells staying at their original site instead of moving to a new location.)
|
localize (Technical term meaning to stay or become limited to one specific area.)
Collocations
cancer cells migrate
|immune cells migrate to the site of infection
|cells migrate along chemical gradients
|neural crest cells migrate
|tumor cells migrate through tissue
|migrate across the membrane
Thèmes
science
|medicine
|biology
|health
Exemples
- During inflammation, immune cells migrate rapidly to the affected tissue.
- Cancer cells can migrate through the bloodstream and form tumors in other organs.
- Neural crest cells migrate extensively during early development to form various structures.
- Endothelial cells migrate to close the wound surface.
- In this assay we measure how quickly the cells migrate across the membrane.
Exemples pédagogiques
- Some cancer cells migrate to other parts of the body.
- White blood cells migrate to the place of infection.
- These cells migrate to repair the damaged area.
- During growth, some cells migrate to form new tissue.
Grammaire
Forme canonique
migrate
API
GB/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt/
US/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt/
Syllabes et accentuation
mi - grate (2 syllabes)
Stress on 1st syllable (mi)
Formes du mot
Verb
- Base: migrate
- 3rd Person Singular: migrates
- Present Participle: migrating
- Past: migrated
Famille de mots
Expressions
migrate online
1/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt ˈɔnlˌaɪn/
fixed phrase
move activities onto the internet
To move an activity or service from the physical world to the internet.
Exemples
- Many university courses have migrated online in recent years.
- Local shops are trying to migrate online to reach more customers.
- During the pandemic, most of our events migrated online.
migrate south for the winter
1/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt sˈaʊθ fɚ ðə wˈɪntɚ/
fixed phrase
animals moving south in winter
To travel to the south during winter, usually said about birds and other animals.
Exemples
- Many bird species migrate south for the winter to find food.
- As temperatures drop, the geese migrate south for the winter.
- Not all birds migrate south for the winter; some stay all year.
migrate to the cloud
1/mˈaɪɡɹˌeɪt tə ðə klˈaʊd/
fixed phrase
technical
move IT systems to cloud services
To move programs, data, or systems from your own computers to cloud services on the internet.
Exemples
- Many small businesses are planning to migrate to the cloud to reduce IT costs.
- The company migrated its entire CRM system to the cloud in six months.
- Before you migrate to the cloud, you need a clear backup and security plan.