foreign
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɒɹɪn/
ipa: /ˈfɒɹən/
ipa: /ˈfɔɹɪn/
ipa: /ˈfɔɹən/
ipa: /ˈfɑɹɪn/
ipa: /ˈfɑɹɪn/
ipa: /ˈfɔɹən/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈfɔrɪn/
note: father-bother merger
ipa: /ˈfɑrɪn/
note: Indic
ipa: /-ɛ(j)n/
rhymes: -ɒɹən
rhymes: -ɒɹɪn
Forms: form: more foreign
form: most foreign
form: forane
form: forraine
Etymology: 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).
Senses: examples: text: foreign markets; foreign soil
text: He liked visiting foreign cities.
glosses: Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
examples: text: foreign car; foreign word; foreign citizen; foreign trade
text: The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.
ref: 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Ayrsham Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
text: Foreign companies love to complain about doing business in China.[…]Amid such moans it is worth remembering that, for all the barriers that foreign multinationals face in China, it has welcomed them with open arms compared with the protectionism imposed by Japan and South Korea at comparable stages in their economic development.
ref: 2013 August 24, “Guardian warriors and golden eggs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8850:
text: There are many more foreign students in Europe since the Erasmus scheme started.
glosses: Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.
examples: text: foreign policy; foreign navies
text: 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.
ref: 2025 April 23, Zachary B. Wolf, “Elon Musk’s government role gets even murkier”, in CNN:
glosses: Relating to a different nation.
examples: text: foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species
glosses: Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
examples: text: It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.
text: [T]his deſign is not ſo foreign from ſome Peoples Thoughts, […]
ref: 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 Sacramental Test, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 14:
text: Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area.
ref: 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 133:
qualifier: formerly with from
glosses: Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.
raw_tags: with to
examples: text: Kept him a foreign man still; which so grieved him, / That he ran mad and died.
ref: 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), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
glosses: Held at a distance; excluded; exiled.
topics: law
glosses: From a different legal jurisdiction (state, province), even if within the same country.
examples: text: My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM.
glosses: Belonging to a different organization, company etc.
glosses: Outside, outdoors, outdoor.
Synonyms: sense: from a different country
word: overseas
sense: from a different country
word: international
sense: strange
word: alien
sense: strange
word: fremd
sense: in a place where it does not belong
word: extraneous
word: acquired
word: additional
word: adventitious
word: ascititious
word: foreign
word: intrusive
word: outlandish
word: strange
word: supplemental
Hypernyms: word: extrinsic
Hyponyms: word: implanted
word: inculcated
word: infused
word: ingrafted
word: introduced
word: learned
Derived terms: 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 secretary
foreign service
foreign tongue
foreign trade
forex
hyperforeign
nonforeign
semiforeign
unforeign