exodus
n. countablen. a situation where a large group of people all leave a place at the same time. It is often used to describe people moving away from a city or a country because of a problem.
n. a mass departure of people, especially emigrants, from a specific location or situation. When capitalised, it refers specifically to the biblical departure of the Israelites from Egypt.
The city saw a mass exodus of residents during the heatwave.
The sudden increase in property taxes triggered an exodus of small business owners to the neighboring county.
Economic instability in the capital led to a rural exodus, as thousands of young professionals returned to their family farms in search of a lower cost of living.
From Latin Exodus, from Ancient Greek ἔξοδος (éxodos), from ἐξ (ex, “out of”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”).
Usually takes the preposition 'of' to describe the group and 'from' to describe the origin.