FOREIGN

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foreign mean? 

• FOREIGN (adjective)
  The adjective FOREIGN has 4 senses:

1. of concern to or concerning the affairs of other nations (other than your own)

2. relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world

3. not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something

4. not belonging to that in which it is contained; introduced from an outside source

  Familiarity information: FOREIGN used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOREIGN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of concern to or concerning the affairs of other nations (other than your own)

Context example:

a foreign office

Similar:

abroad; overseas (in a foreign country)

external; international; outside (from or between other countries)

Also:

international (concerning or belonging to all or at least two or more nations)

Antonym:

domestic (of concern to or concerning the internal affairs of a nation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world

Synonyms:

foreign; strange

Context example:

on business in a foreign city

Similar:

adventive (not native and not fully established; locally or temporarily naturalized)

alien; exotic (being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world)

nonnative (of plants or animals originating in a part of the world other than where they are growing)

established; naturalized (introduced from another region and persisting without cultivation)

foreign-born; nonnative (of persons born in another area or country than that lived in)

imported (used of especially merchandise brought from a foreign source)

tramontane (being or coming from another country)

unnaturalised; unnaturalized (not having acquired citizenship)

Attribute:

strangeness; unfamiliarity (unusualness as a consequence of not being well known)

curiousness; foreignness; strangeness (the quality of being alien or not native)

Antonym:

native (characteristic of or existing by virtue of geographic origin)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not contained in or deriving from the essential nature of something

Synonyms:

alien; foreign

Context example:

jealousy is foreign to her nature

Similar:

extrinsic (not forming an essential part of a thing or arising or originating from the outside)

Derivation:

foreignness (the quality of being alien or not native)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Not belonging to that in which it is contained; introduced from an outside source

Synonyms:

extraneous; foreign

Context example:

foreign particles in milk

Similar:

adulterant; adulterating (making impure or corrupt by adding extraneous materials)

 Context examples 

The letter—for it was a letter from a foreign potentate—was received six days ago.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Inflammatory immune response requires the recruitment of leukocytes to the site of inflammation upon foreign insult.

(Chemokine Signaling Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

Antigens on surfaces of cells, including infectious or foreign cells or viruses.

(Cell Surface Antigen, NCI Thesaurus)

When carrying foreign genes it will cause transient expression of protein.

(ALVAC, NCI Thesaurus)

The masquerade would fail, and besides, masquerade was foreign to his nature.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Foreign people and places beckon, and if you didn’t travel in February, it seems very likely you will be on the road in March.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

One day—it was in March, 1883—a letter with a foreign stamp lay upon the table in front of the colonel’s plate.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The body releases chemicals that cause blood vessels to leak and tissues to swell in order to isolate a foreign substance from further contact with the body’s tissues.

(Researchers discover otulipenia, a new inflammatory disease, NIH)

My household work is done, so I shall take his foreign journal, and lock myself up in my room and read it....

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The complement system also stimulates phagocytosis of foreign cells and an inflammatory response.

(Classical Complement Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)