noun / adjective
alien
AY-lee-uhn/ˈeɪliʌn/
Foreign to a particular place, community, or familiar experience.
The towering rock formations make this landscape seem alien to the traveler.
Etymology
Latin alienus links “belonging to another” with “foreign” or “strange.” The connection is between what is not one's own and what seems unfamiliar or belongs elsewhere.
In context
inside the spaceship stands the spaceman he is a man entirely like ourselves he wears a close-fitting suit like a deep-sea divers armor butt of alien material
More examples
- The novel describes an alien arriving from another planet.
- The form uses alien for a person without citizenship.
- Such casual dishonesty is alien to her experience.
Forms
alien · aliens
Similar words
- foreign
- Usually concerns another country rather than unfamiliarity in general.
- extraterrestrial
- Specifically concerns beings or things originating beyond Earth.