foreign
Syllables: for·eign/ˈfɒɹɪn//ˈfɔɹɪn/
foreign adjective: located outside a country or place, especially one's own. Also the abbreviation of various phrases.
Adjective
foreign (comparative more foreign, superlative most foreign)
- Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
- foreign markets; foreign soil
- He liked visiting foreign cities.
- Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.
- foreign car; foreign word; foreign citizen; foreign trade
- There are many more foreign students in Europe since the Erasmus scheme started.
- Relating to a different nation.
- foreign policy; foreign navies
- Plus, the Department of Justice has argued in the past that SGEs are subject to the emoluments clause, which means they cannot take payments from foreign governments.2025 April 23, Zachary B. Wolf, “Elon Musk’s government role gets even murkier”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 Jul 2025
- Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
- foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species
- Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.
- It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.
- [T]his deſign is not ſo foreign from ſome Peoples Thoughts, […]1708 December 15 (Gregorian calendar; date written), [Jonathan Swift], A Letter from a Member of the House of Commons in Ireland to a Member of the House of Commons in England, Concerning the...
- Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.
- Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him, / That he ran mad and died.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
- From a different legal jurisdiction (state, province), even if within the same country.
- Belonging to a different organization, company etc.
- My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM.
- Outside, outdoors, outdoor.
Noun
foreign (plural foreigns)
- A foreigner: a person from another country.
- The messaging instructions come in two sets: one for domestics, another for the foreigns.2011 August 30, “White House Extremely Worried About People Saying Dumb Stuff on 9/11”, in Gawker
- An outsider: a person from another place or group.
- A non-guildmember.
- A foreign ship.
- A foreign whip, a car produced abroad.
- In the foreign switching lanes and we riding
[…]
A island I wanna live somewhere silent
I'm shining I'm bout to flood my neck with diamonds
Yeah I've been spitting facts these niggas lying
I'm driving stolens, foreigns, yeah I'm riding2019 August 28, Yb Tak30ver, “Island”, 1:16
- In the foreign switching lanes and we riding
- An outhouse; an outdoor toilet.
- Synonyms:
- backhouse, backside, bog, boggard, boghouse, carsey, chamber foreign, common house, commons, Cousin John
- An area of a community that lies outside the legal town or parish limits.
- An area of a monastery outside its legal limits or serving as an outer court.
Also used as
foreign is also the abbreviation of various phrases.
foreign meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
foreign in Hindi
- located outside one's own country or place
- परदेसी pardesī
- originating from or characteristic of a different country
- विदेशी videśī, बिदेसी bidesī, परदेसी pardesī, विलायती vilāytī
foreign in Marathi
- परकीय
foreign in Urdu
- located outside one's own country or place
- پَرْدیسی pardesī
- originating from or characteristic of a different country
- بِدیسی bidesī, پَرْدیسی pardesī, وِلائِتی vilāytī
foreign in Bengali
- originating from or characteristic of a different country
- বৈদেশিক bōideśik
More languagesFewer languages
- foreign in Telugu
- విదేశీ vidēśī
- foreign in Malayalam
- വിദേശം
- foreign in Tagalog
- banyaga
- foreign in Arabic
- أَجْنَبِيّ ʔajnabiyy, غَرِيب ḡarīb
- foreign in Malay
- asing
- foreign in Indonesian
- luar negeri, asing
- foreign in Persian
- غریب ġarib, بیگانه bigâne, خارجی xâreji, اجنبی ajnabi
- foreign in Thai
- ต่างประเทศ dtàang-bprà-têet, ต่างด้าว dtàang-dâao
- foreign in Vietnamese
- nước ngoài, ngoại quốc, xa lạ
Examples of foreign in a sentence
- Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.
- She quickly acclimatized to her new job in a foreign country.
- For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.
Synonyms of foreign
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of foreign
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more foreign |
| superlative | most foreign |
| alternative form (obsolete) | forane |
| alternative form (obsolete) | forraine |
| Noun | |
| plural | foreigns |
Origin of foreign
From Middle English foreyn, forein, from Old French forain, from Vulgar Latin *forānus (“outsider, outlander”), from Latin forās (“outside, outdoors”) or 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).
Words formed from foreign
- antiforeign
- chamber foreign
- doctrine of foreign equivalents
- foreign accent syndrome
- foreign affairs
- foreign agent
- foreign aid
- foreign body
- foreign-born
- foreign correspondent
- foreign country
- foreign currency
- foreigncy
- foreign debt
- foreign devil
- foreign direct investment
- foreigner
- foreign exchange
- foreign exchange certificate
- foreign exchange market
- foreign exchange risk
- foreign fighter
- foreign investment
- foreignise
- foreignism
- foreignization
- foreignize
- foreign key
- foreign language
- foreign legion
- foreignly
- foreign minister
- foreign money
- foreign muck
- foreign national
- foreignness
- Foreign Office
- foreign policy
- foreign portfolio investment
- foreign secretary
- foreign service
- foreign species
- foreign tongue
- foreign trade
- forex
- hyperforeign
- nonforeign
- semiforeign
- unforeign
Phrases with foreign
- foreign aids
- foreign keys
- foreign debts
- foreign agents
- foreign bodies
- foreign devils
- foreign moneys
- foreign legions
- foreign tongues
- foreign fighters
- Foreign Longhair
- foreign policies
18 more phrasesFewer phrases
- foreign services
- foreign countries
- foreign exchanges
- foreign languages
- Foreign Longhairs
- foreign ministers
- foreign nationals
- foreign currencies
- foreign investments
- foreign secretaries
- foreign correspondents
- foreign accent syndromes
- foreign exchange control
- foreign exchange markets
- foreign exchange controls
- foreign direct investments
- foreign exchange certificates
- foreign portfolio investments
Words that rhyme with foreign
Questions about foreign
- What does foreign mean?
- Foreign means located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
- What is foreign in Hindi?
- Foreign in Hindi is परदेसी (pardesī), विदेशी (videśī), बिदेसी (bidesī). See Foreign meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is foreign?
- Foreign can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce foreign?
- Foreign is pronounced /ˈfɒɹɪn/ (UK).
Words near foreign in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: foreign (page history and authors); foreign (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); foreign (Malayalam, 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-uk-foreign.ogg, En-us-foreign.ogg.
Cite this entry: “foreign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foreign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.