egress

E1G2R1E1S1S1
/ˈiːɡɹɛs//ɪˈɡɹɛs/

noun

An exit or way out.

“The window provides an egress in the event of an emergency.”

Less commonScrabble 7

Meanings

egress1

nounegress (countable and uncountable, plural egresses)

plural egresses

  1. countableuncountableAn exit or way out.

    The window provides an egress in the event of an emergency.

    5 more examples

    Gates of burning adamant, / Barred over us, prohibit all egress.

    1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

    Looking about him while in this state of suspense, Charles Darnay observed that the gate was held by a mixed guard of soldiers and patriots, the latter far outnumbering the former; and that while ingress into the city for peasants’ carts bringing in supplies, and for similar traffic and traffickers, was easy enough, egress, even for the homeliest people, was very difficult.

    1859, Charles Dickens, “In Secret”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 168

    Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

    1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

    Egress traffic is network traffic that begins inside a network and proceeds through its routers to its destination somewhere outside the network. […] While network ingress filtering makes Internet traffic traceable to its source, egress filtering helps ensure that unauthorized or malicious traffic never leaves the network.

    2019, Crystal Panek, Security Fundamentals, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 11

    We also found that the only emergency egress from the tram was by smashing the front or rear windscreens, and that emergency lighting had failed when the tram overturned.

    2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33

    Antonyms: ingress, entrance, way in

  2. countableuncountableThe process of exiting or leaving.

    Now the crumpled structure lies across the Patapsco River outlet, blocking egress from the point like a kicked-over toy.

    2024, Peter Grier, Key Bridge is gone. It leaves a hole in Baltimore’s blue-collar soul., in: The Christian Science Monitor, March 28 2024
    2 more examples

    Buildings or portions thereof shall be provided with a means of egress system as required this chapter. The provisions of this chapter shall control the design, construction and arrangement of means egress components required to provide an approved means of egress from structures and portions thereof.

    2003, International Building Code (IBC), Chapter 10 section 1001.1

    Although the primary rationale for selection of antigenic and phase variants is believed to be the evasion of host antibodies resulting in persistence, other possibilities exist, such as differential adherence to host cells or regulation of host cell invasion and egress.

    2017 July 15, Chris L McGowin, Patricia A Totten, “The Unique Microbiology and Molecular Pathogenesis of Mycoplasma genitalium”, in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, volume 216, number suppl_2, →DOI, pages S382–S388

    Synonyms: departure · Antonyms: entering, entrance

  3. countableuncountableastronomyThe end of the transit of a celestial body through the disk of an apparently larger one.

egress2

verbegress (third-person singular simple present egresses, present participle egressing, simple past and past participle egressed)

present singular third person egresses · participle present egressing · participle past egressed · past egressed

  1. intransitiveTo exit or leave; to go or come out.

    Synonyms: depart, exit, go out, leave · Antonyms: ingress, enter, go in

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAn exit or way out.

nounThe process of exiting or leaving.

Similar

verbTo exit or leave; to go or come out.

More synonyms by meaning

noun(astronomy) the reappearance of a celestial body after an eclipse

Similar
Opposite

nounthe becoming visible

Broader

nounthe act of coming (or going) out; becoming apparent

Broader
actdeedhuman action

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

egress · noun

  1. Latinēgressus
  2. Englishegress

From Latin ēgressus, from ex- + gressus, literally “out-way”.

Full word history & related roots →

egress · verb

  1. Latinēgressum
  2. Englishegress

From Latin ēgressum, past participle of ēgredior.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian излизане
  • излизане (izlizane)process of exiting
Czech vycházení, vyjití
  • vycházeníprocess of exiting
  • vyjitíprocess of exiting
Finnish lähteminen
  • lähteminenprocess of exiting
French sortie
  • sortieprocess of exiting
German Ausgang, Austritt
  • Ausgangprocess of exiting
  • Austrittprocess of exiting
Italian uscita
  • uscitaprocess of exiting
Latin ēgressus
  • ēgressusprocess of exiting
Romanian ieșire
  • ieșireprocess of exiting
Russian вы́ход, покида́ние
  • вы́ход (výxod)process of exiting
  • покида́ние (pokidánije)process of exiting
Spanish salida, egresar
  • salidaprocess of exiting
  • egresarTranslations
Swedish sorti
  • sortiprocess of exiting
Turkish çıkış
  • çıkışprocess of exiting
Ukrainian вихід
  • вихід (vyxid)process of exiting
Cite this entry
APA

egress. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/egress

MLA

“egress.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/egress. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “egress,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/egress.

Source: egress on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.