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<font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23, 2024 is:</font>
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<strong>exodus</strong> • \EK-suh-dus\ • <em>noun</em><br />
<p>An exodus is a situation in which many people leave a place at the same time—in other words a mass departure or <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emigration">emigration</a>.</p>
<p>// The resort town eagerly anticipated the mass <em>exodus</em> from the cities to its beaches as summer approached.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exodus">See the entry ></a></p>
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<strong>Examples:</strong><br />
<p>“Experts link lower rents to a possible drop in demand after population losses during a recent <em>exodus</em> from parts of Southern California. As the state’s population has stagnated, some believe demand may cool and dampen rent growth.” — Anthony de Leon, <em>The Los Angeles Times</em>, 14 Mar. 2024 </p>
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<strong>Did you know?</strong><br />
<p>The Biblical book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, so it's no surprise that the word <em>exodus</em>, uncapitalized, has come to refer more generally to any mass departure. <em>Exodus</em> was adopted into English (via Latin) from the Greek word <em>Exodos</em>, which literally means “the road out.” <em>Exodos</em> was formed by combining the prefix <em>ex-</em>, meaning “out of,” and <em>hodos</em>, meaning “road” or “way.” Indeed, many roads led out of <em>hodos</em> into English; other <em>hodos</em> descendants include <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/episode">episode</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/method">method</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/odometer">odometer</a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/period">period</a></em>. While <em>exodus</em> 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 <a href="https://bit.ly/491e6rj">en masse</a> of a large group of people, as when novelist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nnedi-Okorafor">Nnedi Okorafor</a> writes in her science fiction novel <em>Lagoon</em> (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.”</p>
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