It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 23rd.
Today's word is Exodus, spelled E-X-O-D-U-S.
Exodus is a noun.
And Exodus is a situation in which many people leave a place at the same time.
In other words, a mass departure or emigration.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Los Angeles Times.
Experts link lower rents to a possible drop in demand after population losses during a recent exodus from parts of Southern California.
As the state's population has stagnated, some believe demand may cool and dampen rent growth.
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 Exodus,
which literally means the road out.
Exodus was formed by combining the prefix X, meaning out of, and hodos, meaning road or way.
Indeed, many roads lead 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,
as in his or her or 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 Nedi Okorofor writes in her science fiction novel Lagoon,