English Explanatory Dictionary

alien

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person, animal, plant, or other thing which is from outside the family, group, organization, or territory under consideration.
  2. A citizen or national of another sovereign state.
  3. A mischievous or suspicious foreigner.
  4. Any life form of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin.
  5. One excluded from certain privileges; one alienated or estranged.
adj
  1. Not belonging to the same country, land, or government, or to the citizens or subjects thereof; foreign.
  2. Very unfamiliar, strange, or removed.
  3. Pertaining to extraterrestrial life; typical of an extraterrestrial creature.
verb
  1. To estrange; to alienate.
  2. To transfer the ownership of something.
name
  1. Alternative form of Alian.

Pronunciation

/ˈeɪ.li.ən/ ā′-lē-ən āl′-yən En-us-alien.ogg

Word forms

alien aliens alyaunte more alien most alien aliening aliened aliene

Etymology

From Middle English alien, a borrowing from Old French alien, aliene, from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to someone else”, later “exotic, foreign”), from Latin alius (“other”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos. Related to English else.

Synonyms

outlander fremd guest stranger allotrious strange acquired additional adventitious alien ascititious extraneous foreign intrusive outlandish supplemental tramontane monstrous weird aberrant abnormal anomalous as queer as Dick's hatband bizarre booky curious deviant discrepant eerie eldritch errant exceptional extraordinary fey forby freak freakish freaky funny heteroclite hinky incongruous incongruitous irregular kooky nonstandard odd out of the ordinary outré peculiar quaint queer queer as a clockwork orange queer as a nine bob note queer as a three dollar bill queer as a coot queer as Dick's hatband rare rum rummy

Derived words

alien abduction alienage alien hand syndrome alienish alienlike alien nucleic acid alien prior alien priory alien reproduction vehicle aliensdidit alien space bats alien species ancient alien casual alien ego alien grey alien gray alien illegal alien Nordic alien resident alien space alien undocumented alien
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