asylum

Protection allowing someone to stay safely in a country or place when leaving would put them in danger.

• She applied for asylum.
• The government granted asylum to several refugees.
• He sought asylum after receiving threats in his home country.

How to use it: grant asylum to someone (The country granted asylum to the journalist.); seek asylum in a place (They sought asylum in a neighbouring country.)

Similar words: refuge, sanctuary

Common phrases: seek asylum, political asylum, grant asylum

An old word for a hospital where people with mental illnesses lived and received care.

• The old asylum is now a museum.
• She was sent to an asylum in 1890.
• The book describes conditions in nineteenth-century asylums.

Similar words: psychiatric hospital, mental hospital

Common phrases: mental asylum, old asylum, asylum patients