[əˈsʌɪləm], (Noun)

Definitions:
- the protection granted by a state to someone who has left their home country as a political refugee
(e.g: she applied for asylum and was granted refugee status)

- an institution for the care of people with mental illness
(e.g: he'd been committed to an asylum)


Phrases:

Origin:
late Middle English (in the sense ‘place of refuge’, especially for criminals): via Latin from Greek asulon ‘refuge’, from asulos ‘inviolable’, from a- ‘without’ + sulon ‘right of seizure’. Current senses date from the 18th century