alien
/ˈeɪ.li.ən/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.29 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person, animal, plant, or other thing which is from outside the family, group, organization, or territory under consideration.
noun
A citizen or national of another sovereign state.
noun
Any life form of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin.
noun
One excluded from certain privileges; one alienated or estranged.
adj
Not belonging to the same country, land, or government, or to the citizens or subjects thereof; foreign.
adj
Very unfamiliar, strange, or removed.
adj
Pertaining to extraterrestrial life; typical of an extraterrestrial creature.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "An alien born may purchase lands, or other estates: but not for his own use; for the king is thereupon entitled to them."
- "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."
- "I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien I'm an Englishman in New York"
- "Aliens are aliens because of persecution or war or hardship or famine."
- "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 Freedom's Progress and kick their scaly asses. I'm glad it's a human finding these bastards."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂el- (other), alien, aliēnus, alius, *h₂élyos, 阿蓮//
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Biology.
Inflected Forms
aliens (plural)
alyaunte (alternative)
more alien (comparative)
most alien (superlative)
aliens (present, singular)
aliening (participle, present)
aliened (participle, past)
aliened (past)
aliene (alternative)