stranger
UK/ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒə(ɹ)//ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/
stranger is the comparative form of strange.
Noun
stranger (plural strangers)
- A person whom one does not know; a person who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance.
- That gentleman is a stranger to me.
- Children are taught not to talk to strangers.
- An outsider or foreigner.
- I am a most poor woman and a stranger, / Born out of your dominions.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)...
- Melons on beds of ice are taught to bear, / And strangers to the sun yet ripen here.1726, George Granville, Written in a Garden in the North
- One not admitted to communion or fellowship.
- A newcomer.
- […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- The first thing that strikes the stranger is the sharpness of the curves on the metre gauge; it is not unusual for a long train to be travelling in three directions at once, and the engine is frequently in full view of the windows of the ninth or tenth carriage.1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263
- Synonyms:
- newbie
- Used ironically to refer to a person who the speaker knows.
- Hello, stranger!
- One not belonging to the family or household; a guest; a visitor.
- To honour and receive / Our heavenly stranger.1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- One not privy or party to an act, contract, or title; a mere intruder or intermeddler; one who interferes without right.
- Actual possession of land gives a good title against a stranger having no title.
- [Judge Beverly] Davis then granted the adoption to the new wife of the boy's father; this action designated the boy's natural mother a "legal stranger," terminating all rights the mother had to visit her child.1980 August 9, Jil Clark, “Lesbian Mother Fights For Son”, in Gay Community News, page 1
- A superstitious premonition of the coming of a visitor by a bit of stalk in a cup of tea, the guttering of a candle, etc.
- A moth, Lacanobia blenna
Meaning of strange
Adjective
strange (comparative stranger, superlative strangest)
- Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary, often with a negative connotation.
- He thought it strange that his girlfriend wore shorts in the winter.
- Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.
- I moved to a strange town when I was ten.
- Synonyms:
- new, unfamiliar, unknown, ignote, knownless, obscure, unascertained, unapprehended, undiscovered, unexplained
- Outside of one's current relationship; unfamiliar.
- When AIDS and Herpes hit the street Talib stopped fucking with strange pussy and stray pussy. Bitches had a ways to go to match Malikah in bed anyway. With her there was that extra element of real love that heightened sex […]2006, Black Butch Malone, Streetwise: N.Y. YO, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 47
- Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness.
- A strange quark is electrically charged, carrying an amount -1/3, as does the down quark.2004, Frank Close, Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 93
- Of an attractor: having a fractal structure.
- Belonging to another country; foreign.
- I take goyng thither [to Italy], and liuing there, for a yonge ientleman, that doth not goe vnder the kepe and garde of such a man, as both, by wisedome can, and authoritie dare rewle him, to be meruelous dangerous […] not bicause I do contemne, either the knowledge of strange and diuerse tonges...a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […]...
- Synonyms:
- alien, outlandish, acquired, additional, adventitious, ascititious, extraneous, foreign, fremd, intrusive
Verb
stranger (third-person singular simple present strangers, present participle strangering, simple past and past participle strangered)
Synonyms of stranger
Antonyms
- acquaintance
- friend
- compatriot
- countryman
- fellow citizen
- fellow countryman
- national
- resident
Forms of stranger
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | strangers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | strangers |
| present participle | strangering |
| past participle | strangered |
| past | strangered |
Origin of stranger
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
From Middle English straunger, from Old French estrangier (“foreign, alien”), from estrange, from Latin extraneus (“foreign, external”) (whence also English estrange), from extra (“outside of”). Cognate with French étranger (“foreigner, stranger”) and Spanish extranjero (“foreigner”). Displaced native Old English fremde (literally “strange or unfamiliar person”).
Words formed from stranger
Phrases with stranger
Words that rhyme with stranger
Questions about stranger
- What does stranger mean?
- Stranger means a person whom one does not know; a person who is neither a friend nor an acquaintance.
- What is stranger the comparative form of?
- Stranger is the comparative form of strange.
- What part of speech is stranger?
- Stranger can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce stranger?
- Stranger is pronounced /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of stranger?
- The plural of stranger is strangers.
Words near stranger in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stranger (page history and authors); strange (page history and authors). 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-stranger.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stranger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stranger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.