Exile means being forced to leave your home or country and not being allowed to return, usually as a punishment or for safety reasons. When a government exiles someone, it sends them away and forbids them from coming back. When people go into exile, they must live far from everything familiar: their friends, their language, their favorite places, and often their way of life.

Throughout history, rulers have used exile to remove enemies or troublemakers without imprisoning or executing them. Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor, was exiled twice: first to the island of Elba, then to the remote island of Saint Helena after his defeat at Waterloo. Some people choose exile themselves to escape danger, like writers fleeing countries where speaking freely could get them arrested or harmed.

Exile creates a profound longing for home. The exiled person might spend years in a foreign land, always hoping to return. The word can also describe this forced separation itself: you might say someone “lived in exile for twenty years.” A person living in exile is called an exile.

The word sometimes appears in milder contexts too. When your older sister exiles you from her room and won't let you in, she's forcing you out of a space that isn't yours, but it can still feel like banishment.