ALIEN

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does alien mean? 

• ALIEN (noun)
  The noun ALIEN has 3 senses:

1. a person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country

2. anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found

3. a form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth or its atmosphere

  Familiarity information: ALIEN used as a noun is uncommon.

• ALIEN (adjective)
  The adjective ALIEN has 2 senses:

1. not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something

2. being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world

  Familiarity information: ALIEN used as an adjective is rare.

• ALIEN (verb)
  The verb ALIEN has 1 sense:

1. transfer property or ownership

  Familiarity information: ALIEN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALIEN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

alien; foreigner; noncitizen; outlander

Hypernyms ("alien" is a kind of...):

traveler; traveller (a person who changes location)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "alien"):

au pair (a young foreigner who lives with a family in return for doing light housework)

deportee; exile (a person who is expelled from home or country by authority)

gringo (a Latin American (disparaging) term for foreigners (especially Americans and Englishmen))

import; importee (an imported person brought from a foreign country)

metic (an alien who paid a fee to reside in an ancient Greek city)

Derivation:

alien (being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

alien; stranger; unknown

Hypernyms ("alien" is a kind of...):

interloper; intruder; trespasser (someone who intrudes on the privacy or property of another without permission)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "alien"):

foreigner; outsider (someone who is excluded from or is not a member of a group)

Derivation:

alien (being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth or its atmosphere

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

alien; extraterrestrial; extraterrestrial being

Hypernyms ("alien" is a kind of...):

hypothetical creature (a creature that has not been observed but is hypothesized to exist)

Derivation:

alien (being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world)

• ALIEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something

Synonyms:

alien; foreign

Context example:

jealousy is foreign to her nature

Similar:

extrinsic (not forming an essential part of a thing or arising or originating from the outside)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world

Synonyms:

alien; exotic

Context example:

exotic cuisine

Similar:

foreign; strange (relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world)

Derivation:

alien (a form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth or its atmosphere)

alien (a person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country)

alien (anyone who does not belong in the environment in which they are found)

• ALIEN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Transfer property or ownership

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

alien; alienate

Context example:

The will aliened the property to the heirs

Hypernyms (to "alien" is one way to...):

transfer (cause to change ownership)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

The alien spacecraft hypothesis is a fun idea, but our analysis suggests there is a whole host of natural phenomena that could explain it.

('Oumuamua interstellar object was not an alien spacecraft, National Science Foundation)

Alien dust in the solar system is not unanticipated.

(Saturn Spacecraft Samples Interstellar Dust, NASA)

Water was detected by astronomers in the atmosphere of a planet 120 light-years away in a hunt for alien life.

(Water Found in Planet 120 Light Years Away, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

If the element is lacking in other parts of the cosmos, it could be difficult for alien life to exist.

(Finding Alien Life Unlikely Due to Lack of Phosphorus in Universe, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The seafloor is an alien landscape, with crushing pressures, near-total darkness and fluids wafting from cracks in the Earth's crust.

(Giant group of octopus moms discovered in the deep sea, National Science Foundation)

The new technique shows the dramatic influence that hazy skies could have on our ability to learn about these alien worlds orbiting distant stars.

(Sunsets on Titan reveal the complexity of hazy exoplanets, NASA)

Hypothetically, in distant future, the arrival of alien substances from other planets to Earth may be possible as well as to other planets from Earth, the report said.

(Mutated Terrestrial Bacteria That Return from Space Pose Threat to Life on Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

However, they conceded that it was purely speculative, and several other scientists have cautioned against linking these bursts to possible alien intelligence.

(Mysterious Radio Signals Detected from Deep Space, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This flies in the face of the "alien megastructure" idea and the other more exotic speculations.

(Mysterious Dimming of Tabby's Star May Be Caused by Dust, NASA)

He had developed into an alien.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)