foreign
Meaning
-
- Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
- Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.
- Relating to a different nation.
- Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
- Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.
- (obsolete) Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.
- From a different one of the states of the United States, as of a state of residence or incorporation.
- Belonging to a different organization, company etc.
- (obsolete) Outside, outdoors, outdoor.
Synonyms
another’s
someone else’s
other’s
of foreign manufacture
foreign-language
from abroad
from elsewhere
belonging to others
out-landish
alien corporation
another's
white person
Frequency
Hyphenated as
for‧eign
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈfɒɹɪn/
Etymology
From Middle English foreyn, forein, from Old French forain, from Vulgar Latin *forānus (“outsider, outlander”), from Latin forās (“outside, outdoors”), also spelled forīs (“outside, outdoors”). Displaced native Old English elþēodiġ (“foreign”) and now-dialectal English fremd, from Old English fremde (“strange, foreign”). The silent -g- added perhaps by analogy with reign (compare also sovereign which was similarly altered).
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Notes