alien
/ˈeɪ.li.ən/
alien noun: a person, animal, plant, or other thing which is from outside the family, group, organization, or territory under consideration.
Noun
alien (plural aliens)
- A person, animal, plant, or other thing which is from outside the family, group, organization, or territory under consideration.
- An animated film intended to inform travellers about the dangers that alien species present to Arctic ecosystems is being released today. The message is that it is important to ensure that nobody accidentally brings alien species with them as stowaways in their clothing, baggage or equipment.2023 March 21 (last accessed), NOBANIS: European Network on Invasive Species
- A citizen or national of another sovereign state.
- An alien born may purchase lands, or other estates: but not for his own use; for the king is thereupon entitled to them.1773, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books, 5th edition, volume 1, page 372
- The counsel have shown conclusively that they are not a state of the union, and have insisted that individually they are aliens, not owing allegiance to the United States.1831, John Marshall, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, U.S. Government
- A mischievous or suspicious foreigner.
- Any life form of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin.
- You might not have much use for me. You spend too much time with the damn aliens, pretending your time in the gangs back on Earth never happened. I know you weren't happy when I found you at the Citadel a couple years back.
But I'm glad you're on this. I hope you find whoever took my people on...2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Hello from the Reds
- You might not have much use for me. You spend too much time with the damn aliens, pretending your time in the gangs back on Earth never happened. I know you weren't happy when I found you at the Citadel a couple years back.
- One excluded from certain privileges; one alienated or estranged.
- […]aliens from the common wealth of Iſrael[…]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 2:12, column 2
- The One Who, in this marvellous utterance, brings those who were by nature aliens and enemies of God into intimate and holy relations with God the Father, is the very One Who had to come to offer that Sacrifice without which such relationship would have been forever an impossibility; without which...1928, Philip Mauro, “The Character of the Sermon on the Mount”, in The Gospel of the Kingdom, with an Examination of Modern Dispensationalism (Religion), Boston: Hamilton Brothers, →OCLC, page 182
Adjective
alien (comparative more alien, superlative most alien)
- Not belonging to the same country, land, or government, or to the citizens or subjects thereof; foreign.
- alien subjects, enemies, property, or shores
- Synonyms:
- allotrious, strange, acquired, additional, adventitious, ascititious, extraneous, foreign, fremd, intrusive
- Very unfamiliar, strange, or removed.
- principles alien to our religion
- An alien sound of melancholy.1850, William Wordsworth, The Prelude
- Pertaining to extraterrestrial life; typical of an extraterrestrial creature.
- It had a peculiar alien tallness, a peculiar alien flattened head, peculiar slitty little alien eyes[.]1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 8
- Synonyms:
- extraterrestrial, nonterrestrial, xenomorphic
Verb
alien (third-person singular simple present aliens, present participle aliening, simple past and past participle aliened)
Proper noun capitalized: Alien
Alien
- Alternative form of Alian.
- Premier Chiang Ching-kuo traveled to Alien village in Kaohsiung county May 23 to inspect the Chung-chou No. 3 oilwell prospect of Chinese Petroleum Corporation.1977, 光華畫報, volume 2, numbers 2-12, →OCLC, page 25
- A woman holds up two bowls containing eggs at a press conference in Taipei yesterday. The left contains a regular egg, while the other bowl is an SGS-certified egg from Taiwan’s first company to use humanely raised egg-laying hens from Europe, the Shih An Farm in Greater Kaohsiung’s Alien District.2012 July 5, Lee I-chia, “COA fights for hens’ rights”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jul 2012, Taiwan News, page 3
alien meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
alien in Hindi
- person, etc. from outside
- अनजाना anjānā, अनजानी anjānī, बाहरी bāhrī, विदेशी videśī, परदेसी pardesī
- foreigner
- विदेशी videśī, अन्यदेशीय anyadeśīya, परदेसी pardesī
- life form of non-Earth origin
- परग्रही paragrahī
- not belonging to the same country
- विदेशी videśī
alien in Urdu
- person, etc. from outside
- اجنبی ajnabī
- foreigner
- اَجْنَبی ajnabī, پَرْدیسی pardesī, بیگانَہ begāna
alien in Bengali
- এলিয়েন
alien in Malayalam
- അന്യഗ്രഹജീവി
More languagesFewer languages
- alien in Gujarati
- પરાયું, પરગ્રહવાસી, એલિયન
- alien in Arabic
- غَرِيب ḡarīb, غَرِيبَة ḡarība, أَجْنَبِيّ ʔajnabiyy, أَجْنَبِيَّة ʔajnabiyya
- alien in Malay
- makhluk asing
- alien in Indonesian
- orang asing, makhluk luar, makhluk angkasa, makhluk asing
- alien in Persian
- بیگانه bigane
- alien in Thai
- ฝรั่ง fà-ràng, มนุษย์ต่างดาว má-nút-dtàang-daao, ต่างประเทศ dtàang-bprà-têet, ต่างด้าว dtàang-dâao
- alien in Vietnamese
- người nước ngoài, người ngoại quốc, người ngoài hành tinh
Examples of alien in a sentence
- Science fiction often imagines alien civilizations in the depths of outer space.
- A spin-off book series revealed the aliens to be originally from Earth, but it's not canon.
- The aliens in the science-fiction film wanted to assimilate human beings into their own race.
Synonyms of alien
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of alien
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | aliens |
| alternative form | alyaunte |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more alien |
| superlative | most alien |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | aliens |
| present participle | aliening |
| past participle | aliened |
| past | aliened |
| alternative form | aliene |
Origin of alien
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.
Borrowed from Mandarin 阿蓮 (Ālián) Wade–Giles romanization: A¹-lien².
Words formed from alien
- 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
Phrases with alien
Words that rhyme with alien
Questions about alien
- What does alien mean?
- Alien means a person, animal, plant, or other thing which is from outside the family, group, organization, or territory under consideration.
- What is alien in Hindi?
- Alien in Hindi is अनजाना (anjānā), अनजानी (anjānī), बाहरी (bāhrī). See Alien meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is alien?
- Alien can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce alien?
- Alien is pronounced /ˈeɪ.li.ən/.
- What is the plural of alien?
- The plural of alien is aliens.
Words near alien in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: alien (page history and authors); Alien (page history and authors); alien (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); alien (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); alien (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-alien.ogg.
Cite this entry: “alien.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alien. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.