1Belonging to a foreign country or nation.

1. 1.1Unfamiliar and disturbing or distasteful.
   ‘bossing anyone around was alien to him’
   More example sentences

   • ‘they found the world of adult education a little alien’
   • ‘Perhaps it might seem alien to someone unfamiliar with comics.’
   • ‘By forming this non-political movement, the members would not be made strange or alien to power.’
   • ‘In fact, the whole act of writing anything at all feels rather strange and alien to me now.’
   • ‘For example, much of what the filmmaker does is unknown or alien to the audience.’
   • ‘The geography was utterly alien to Patrick, although his unfamiliarity with the picture could have been attributed to the gaps.’
   • ‘They converse in strange tongues, using words and expressions that are totally alien to me.’
   • ‘Drug taking is alien to most of us in society, and the photograph did show the stereotypical ‘drug taking’ scene; but is drug taking really so alien to the streets of York?’
   • ‘Tarkovsky's spirituality is profoundly alien to the west's dualism: it is earthly, earthy, as cool and clear and material as the water his camera spends so long dwelling upon.’
   • ‘He insists more than his teacher that we recognize the physical presence of elements that are alien to canvas, yet takes extra care to make that presence ambiguous.’
   • ‘Their hopes, wishes, fears, and aspirations were not ours; their beliefs, tastes, and customs were alien to us.’
   • ‘These experiences are turned into snapshots of worlds that are normally utterly alien to the West, yet become entirely understandable with Kapuscinski as guide.’
   • ‘The case was referred to higher authority for instructions, since it was so rare and so unusual and so incomprehensible and in a word, so alien to the Chinese mindset.’
   • ‘It reminds me that nothing human is alien to the Church.’
   • ‘Does this just feel entirely and completely alien to you?’
   • ‘The article about our town in the tabloid on Sunday week last was negativity through and through, depicting a picture of Dungarvan that certainly is alien to me.’
   • ‘To be fair to O'Driscoll, this role was alien to him and the other team's central defenders were big and strong and took no prisoners.’
   • ‘And the weather, so unpredictable in Melbourne at this time of the year, was cool, cloudy and therefore even more alien to the Englishman's style.’
   • ‘It really is the case that language is a foreign substance whose alien presence in our soul is both necessary and troubling.’
   • ‘The ones I saw were being guarded, not by Americans, but by brown-skinned soldiers, men of their own size and race, incongruous in alien boots and uniforms.’
   • ‘Everything in it that she had once seen every day now seemed so foreign and alien, like none of these things had ever belonged to her.’
   Synonyms

   unfamiliar, unknown, unheard of, foreign

   incompatible with, unusual for, opposed to, conflicting with, contrary to, adverse to, in conflict with, at variance with, antagonistic to

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2. 1.2attributive Relating to or denoting beings supposedly from other worlds; extraterrestrial.
   ‘an alien spacecraft’
   More example sentences

   • ‘King's program didn't merely advance the notion that an alien spacecraft crashed at Roswell in 1947.’
   • ‘One third accepted lucky numbers and 30 percent felt that some UFOs were alien spacecraft.’
   • ‘The inner workings of alien spacecraft are at last revealed!’
   • ‘Either the eyewitness saw an alien spacecraft or he's a liar.’
   • ‘General Arthur Exon plus many others suggest this is most likely the crash site of an alien space craft.’
   • ‘As stated above, he claims that there is a tunnel on the Moon through which alien spacecraft can pass.’
   • ‘Darryl said he wouldn't be surprised if they also found an alien spacecraft in that cave.’
   • ‘Carr is a hero in the UFO literature, but his stories of flying saucers and alien creatures were all delusions.’
   • ‘Some believe that the crop designs are messages from alien spacecraft.’
   • ‘The first public announcements from our new alien overlords were supposed to have already occurred.’
   • ‘The fact is, there is no consistent relationship between education and belief that UFOs are alien aircraft.’
   • ‘Darryl is convinced that one day they will unearth the alien mothership completely intact.’
   • ‘He claimed the thing was some type of alien spacecraft.’
   • ‘The energy signature belonged to an alien probe that had detected the warp emissions from the warp drive tests.’
   • ‘In other episodes, characters are inhabited by alien consciousnesses, or surgically altered so that they resemble other, alien races.’
   • ‘Imagine that an alien race, one that has never had contact with the human race, discovers the following items.’
   • ‘The urge to laugh is almost overwhelming as the enticing conspiracy theory degenerates into ranting about reptiles and an alien race plotting to take over the world.’
   • ‘Years ago I used to drink with a chap, sensible in most respects, who was unwaveringly certain of the existence of advanced alien races.’
   • ‘How does any of us as a human being know how an alien race would think?’
   • ‘The thought of first contact with an alien race only through their artifacts is one that is close to the heart of science fiction.’
   Synonyms

   extraterrestrial, other-worldly, unearthly

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3. 1.3(of a plant or animal species) introduced from another country and later naturalized.
   ‘The controversy over trout introductions has come to focus much of the current awareness on the impact of alien species both plant and animal.’
   More example sentences

   • ‘In this context the issue of alien plant and animal species becomes problematic.’
   • ‘He urged gardeners to avoid the use of exotic plants and not to plant alien flowers out in the wild or along hedgerows.’
   • ‘It is well known that the introductions of alien species have wreaked havoc on indigenous fauna and flora worldwide.’
   • ‘The invasion of alien tree species has seriously impacted many natural forest ecosystems around the world.’
   Synonyms

   foreign, non-native, tropical

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1A foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living.

1. 1.1A hypothetical or fictional being from another world.
   ‘Reading that he thinks aliens in spaceships brought the DNA that humans came from to earth was enough.’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Go there and see an awe-inspiring picture of one of the original aliens in its spaceship.’
   • ‘The novel follows the journey of a small group of people who leave our solar system to make contact with these newly discovered aliens.’
   • ‘Near that town in New Mexico a spaceship of aliens crashed in 1947, some people say.’
   • ‘On an interstellar penal colony, a group of criminal aliens steal a spaceship and chart a course for Earth.’
   • ‘Their confrontation is disrupted by the arrival of a spaceship filled with various aliens.’
   • ‘In the child's imagination, fuelled by science-fiction, the aliens are about to land.’
   • ‘A lot of people believe they've been abducted by aliens in space ships and taken away and then brought back.’
   • ‘The kittens are kicking and rolling inside her tummy, they feel like little aliens trying to get out.’
   • ‘Under no circumstances make spaceships, dinosaurs, aliens, monsters or fantasy art characters.’
   • ‘The best corollary I can find to myself is a fictional television alien!’
   • ‘I'm a feminist science fiction critic who is married to an alien.’
   • ‘When the flying saucer craze began in 1947, aliens were described as little green men.’
   • ‘How will we explain this to the aliens when they land their spaceship here?’
   • ‘Do you have memories of being abducted by aliens and whisked away in a spaceship?’
   • ‘When it is dug up it emits the piercing scream, signalling its discovery to the aliens.’
   • ‘The little alien waddled past Eric and down the alley.’
   • ‘The little alien was wrapping itself around him tighter and tighter.’
   • ‘Giving the credit to aliens is selling your species short.’
   • ‘I shiver as I pass the clothes boutiques, where assorted mannequins stare out like different species of plastic aliens.’
   Synonyms

   extraterrestrial, ET

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2. 1.2A plant or animal species originally introduced from another country and later naturalized.
   ‘They caution that the impact of these aliens on other marine life has yet to be established.’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Invasive aliens, mainly weeping willows, which are the dominant species at the dam, were eradicated.’
   • ‘These aliens created too much shade for prairie plants that need full sunlight to survive.’
   • ‘Ordinarily, scientists gauge environmental impacts by comparing before-and-after data on species in a region invaded by an alien.’
   • ‘I am very much aware of the threat posed by invasive aliens, of all kinds, to our indigenous fauna and flora.’
   • ‘What makes them aliens is that they have been introduced into sea areas where they would not normally live.’