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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

alien

/ˈeɪliən/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does alien mean?

noun

  1. A person, animal, plant, or other thing which is from outside the family, group, organization, or territory under consideration.
  2. A citizen or national of another sovereign state.
  3. Any life form of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin.
More meanings (8)

noun

  1. One excluded from certain privileges; one alienated or estranged.
  2. (derogatory) A mischievous or suspicious foreigner.

adjective

  1. Not belonging to the same country, land, or government, or to the citizens or subjects thereof; foreign.
  2. Very unfamiliar, strange, or removed.
  3. Pertaining to extraterrestrial life; typical of an extraterrestrial creature.

verb

  1. To estrange; to alienate.
  2. To transfer the ownership of something.

proper noun

  1. Alternative form of Alian.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈeɪliən/

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

English and alien poets, statesmen, artists, heroes, battles, plagues, cataclysms, revolutions—we shoveled them all into the English fences according to their dates.
Mark TwainWhat Is Man? and Other EssaysProject Gutenberg ebook #70
I fell indeed into a morbid state, deep and enduring, and alien to fear, which has left permanent scars upon my mind.
H. G. (Herbert George) WellsThe island of Doctor MoreauProject Gutenberg ebook #159
More book examples (3)
Teach our young to love the soil and to till it well, or else an alien race will take away their heritage.
James J. (James John) DavisThe Iron Puddler: My Life in the Rolling Mills and What Came of ItProject Gutenberg ebook #1297
We are alien to each other, and their virtues are even more repugnant to my taste than their falsehoods and false dice.
Friedrich Wilhelm NietzscheThus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and NoneTranslated by Thomas CommonProject Gutenberg ebook #1998
To be cool in the cold is the sign of a vitality quite exquisitely alien from the common conditions of the world.
Alice MeynellThe ChildrenProject Gutenberg ebook #2012