Dictionary.net

the dispersion or spreading of something that was originally localized (as a people or language or culture)

the dispersion of the Jews outside Israel; from the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 587-86 BC when they were exiled to Babylonia up to the present time

the body of Jews (or Jewish communities) outside Palestine or modern Israel

Lit., Dispersion. - applied collectively: (a) To those Jews who, after the Exile, were scattered through the Old World, and afterwards to Jewish Christians living among heathen. Cf. James i. 1.