Menekül

Menekül is a Hungarian verb meaning to flee or escape from danger, pursuit, or persecution. It describes the act of leaving a place to avoid harm and is used for people, groups, and even animals in everyday speech. The verb is typically used with prepositional phrases indicating the source of danger or the direction of the flight, for example, A harcok elől menekült. It can express present, past, and conditional meanings through standard Hungarian tense and mood formation.

Derivations of the verb include several related forms. A person who flees or seeks safety is a menekült (refugee or fugitive). The act of fleeing is called a menekülés, and a person who is fleeing can be described as menekülő. The prefix meg- can form related perfective meanings such as megmenekül, meaning to escape from danger or to be saved. These derivatives show how the root integrates into various grammatical patterns to convey different aspects of escaping.

The term is used across everyday language and in news, legal, and humanitarian contexts, especially in discussions of refugees, asylum seekers, or wartime displacement. It forms part of standard Hungarian vocabulary and appears in both descriptive and prescriptive language when addressing safety, migration, and protection.

See also: refugee, asylum seeker, displacement.