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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

asylum.

A place of safety or refuge.

6 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/əˈsaɪləm/
  1. A place of safety or refuge.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees).

    uncountable
  3. A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.

    countable · dated · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Hellenic *ə- Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) Ancient Greek σύλη (súlē) Ancient Greek -ος (-os) Ancient Greek ἄσυλος (ásulos) Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Hellenic *-on Ancient Greek -ον (-on) Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon)bor. Latin asȳlumlbor. English asylum Learned borrowing from Latin asȳlum, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).

verb/əˈsaɪləm/
  1. to place in an asylum

    dated
  2. to grant protection or refuge

    dated
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Hellenic *ə- Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) Ancient Greek σύλη (súlē) Ancient Greek -ος (-os) Ancient Greek ἄσυλος (ásulos) Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Hellenic *-on Ancient Greek -ον (-on) Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon)bor. Latin asȳlumlbor. English asylum Learned borrowing from Latin asȳlum, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄσυλον (ásulon).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.