foreign

foreign

modif.

1. Concerning a country, idea, or way of life not one's own

   remote, exotic, strange, alien, far, distant, inaccessible, unaccustomed, different, unknown, unfamiliar, extrinsic, extraneous, external, outside, expatriate, exiled, from abroad, not native, not domestic, international, nonnative, nonresident, alienated, estranged, antipodal, faraway, far-off, hyperborean, beyond the rainbow, unexplored, transoceanic, transmarine, ultramontane, at the far corners of the earth, at the uttermost end of the earth, extralocal, beyond the pale, outlandish, picturesque, colorful.

   Antonyms local*, national*, indigenous. *

2. Coming from a country not one's own

   alien, imported, borrowed, nonnative, immigrant, barbarian, barbaric, adopted, coming from another land, not domestic; see also sense 1.

   Antonyms native*, domestic*, aboriginal. *

3. Organically or essentially different

   heterogeneous, unassimilable, unrelated, extraneous; see irrelevant, unsuitable.

foreign implies that the external object is organically so different that it cannot become assimilated a foreign substance in the blood; alien emphasizes the incompatibility of the external object with the subject in question such anger seems alien to his nature; extrinsic refers to that which, coming from outside a thing, is not inherent in its real nature the souvenir had great extrinsic value for him; extraneous, often synonymous with extrinsic, may connote the possibility of integration of the external object into the thing to which it is added extraneous grace notes